Bush Pleads for Patience in Iraq War, Kerry Tells Bush: “Patience is not a strategy”
by Pamela LeaveyIn a speech today on the anniversary of the Iraq War, Bush pleaded for “more patience” from the American people, saying “success is possible but “will take months, not days or weeks.”"
The war has stretched longer, with higher costs, than the White House ever predicted. On the fourth anniversary of the day Bush directed the invasion to begin, the president made a televised statement from the White House Roosevelt Room to defend continued U.S. involvement.
Bush said his plan to send 21,500 additional U.S. troops to secure Baghdad and Iraq’s troubled Anbar Province “will need more time to take effect,” especially since fewer than half of the troop reinforcements have yet arrived in the capital. Bush added: “There will be good days and bad days ahead as the security plan unfolds.”
John Kerry shot back at Bush’s whine to the American public and warned that the U.S. Military is overstretched, and a change in policy is required. The Bush Administration has been “wrong” on nearly “every prediction” about Iraq, said Kerry. We need a “diplomatic strategy.”
President Bush may think “There’s a lot more work to be done,” but he’s pursuing the wrong stategy as John Kerry points out:
“Patience is not a strategy. As we enter the fifth year of war in Iraq with American soldiers policing a civil war between Iraqis, it is clear we need a new policy and change must come from Congress,” said Kerry. “Nearly every prediction this Administration has made about Iraq has been wrong. Wrong about the costs, wrong about how long it would take, wrong about the strain it would place on our military. Now the Administration is wrong to ignore our generals who tell us that there is no military solution to the civil war in Iraq. Unless this Administration is willing to accept more and more years of war in Iraq with no end in sight, we need a regional, diplomatic strategy for peace and a deadline for redeployment to pressure Iraqis to solve their differences.”
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Terrorists who are not arrogant and care less about dignity do not mind at all to be trained by the surge. American may have the technology advantage but the insurgents have the will and they are excited. Even if troop escalation worths its face value, it is also feeding its enemies at the same time. Would you be surprised to see that the terrorists take it as a sign of encouragement for which they are advancing their cause? 51% of Iraqis think that it is ok to kill U.S. and coalition forces. The spread of terrorism is the common fear, the common concern and the common ground of all the nations in the Middle East and beyond. Iraq is an American quagmire. As bad as it is, its potential to get worse is foreseeable. There is a will, there is a way. Mutation evolves fast. Insurgents have nothing more to lose. They thrive on killing. What else is there for them to do or live for anyway?
A Letter to Senator Kerry on the fourth anniversary of the Iraq war
Dear Senator Kerry,
Thirty-six years ago, at age 27, you testified to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, on behalf of veterans protesting the continuation of the Vietnam War. You astounded the Committee with your grasp of the problems facing America in trying to disengage from that war, prompting President Nixon to put you immediately on his Enemies List.
Some of the general points you made in your 1971 testimony:
“To attempt to justify the loss of one American life. . .by linking such loss to the preservation of freedom. . .is the height of criminal hypocrisy.”
“Each day, to facilitate the process by which the United States washes her hands of Vietnam, someone has to give up his life, so that the United States doesn’t have to admit something that the entire world already knows. . .we have made a mistake.”
“We are asking here in Washington for some action from the Congress of the United States of America, which has the power to raise and maintain armies, and which by the Constitution also has the power to declare war.”
“I do not believe that this Congress will, in fact, end the war as we would like to, which is immediately and unilaterally. . .[But] I would say we should set a date that is the earliest possible. . .I do not believe it is necessary to stall any longer.”
Chairman Fulbright commented on your eloquence and its enormous benefit to the country, and Senator Pell said, “I hope, before Mr. Kerry’s life ends, he will be a colleague of ours in this body.”
And so you are today—a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, as the country is mired in another civil war on foreign soil. Appropriately, you are one of the Senators leading the charge for setting a deadline of a year for full withdrawal from Iraq. But, just as with Vietnam, we Americans also need to learn from our tragic mistakes and hold our politicians responsible. We badly need another Fulbright committee investigation of this war and this administration. Can you push this through for us?
Tela Zasloff, Williamstown, MA
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Author of “A Rescuer’s Story: Pastor Pierre Charles Toureille in Vichy France” (The University of Wisconsin Press, 2003) and “Saigon Dreaming, Recollections of Indochina days” (St. Martin’s Press, 1990).