"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it." - George Santayana

Generals know how to fight wars. That's how they get to be Generals. It's not something that's just handed out. So when the General you put in charge of something starts telling you things, it's probably wise to listen. We didn't learn this lesson in Vietnam and it looks like we still haven't learned it.

Lt. General John R. Vines, commander of the Multinational Corps Iraq, disagrees with Congressman Murtha on the pullout of our troops from Iraq. Considering he is the one on the ground and in charge of making things happen, I think it would behoove our leadership to listen to what he has to say.

Lt. Gen. John R. Vines, who commands the Multinational Corps Iraq, said that 36 Iraqi battalions, about one-third of the total force, are now responsible for their own security sectors and can fight the insurgency. But they are not yet ready to operate totally independent of U.S. supply lines and tactical advice.

Because of that, he said, now is not the time for an American withdrawal.

"Iraqi security forces are able to conduct operations in a large portion of their area with only limited coalition support," Gen. Vines told Pentagon reporters via a teleconference from Baghdad. "They do require our support at this time. That support will be increasingly less over a period of time, but a precipitous pullout, I believe, would be destabilizing."

That, to me, sounds like good news. We've got a lot of troops trained and we're gradually moving things over to the Iraqis as they can handle them. Imagine for a moment that you would like to be a pilot. You go to the airport, sign up for lessons and get started. The instructor teaches you the basics of flying and how to take off, then takes you up for your first flight. Halfway through the flight, the instructor simply bails out. He hasn't taught you to land yet, but suddenly you're on your own. Sounds like a pretty messed up situation, doesn't it? And yet that's exactly what Congressman Murtha and his Democratic compadres propose doing to the Iraqis. And the exact same thing they forced us to do to the Vietnamese. It wasn't right then and it isn't right now.

The mistakes that the politicians made in Vietnam were fatal and avoidable. Certainly it was a brutal war, but does that make it not worth fighting? Wasn't our own Revolutionary war quite bloody? Did that keep the French from coming to our aid? Without them, we might still be paying taxes to Britan. Our future certainly would have come out very differently. Now it's time to give other people in the world the same chance. It's time to stop all the political bickering and get the job done right. Stop worrying about trying to score political points and listen to what your commanders are telling you. We've started a job. Let's finish it and prove to the world that we CAN learn from the mistakes we've made in the past.

Posted by: Drew at 07:20 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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