Photo © by David LeesonSomewhere between the focus on the early Iowa Caucus and Brittney’s sister proving that a 16 year old can still ruin her life and future if they really put their mind to it, the Iraq war and the good it is doing has faded. The war that seemed to be the focus of the presidential candidates has been silenced by its unequivocal motion towards success. A new war has unfolded over the last several months and this war has been kicked aside by the mainstream media.
The John’s, or John McCain and John Edwards are the only two, both on opposite sides of the fence, that feel compelled to talk about it. Five months ago the democratic candidates almost seemed to plan out Iraq speeches and attempt to one up each other on what seemed to be the latest fad in taking the first opportunity to slander the Bush administration.
"I have said that as soon as I become president, I will ask the Joint Chiefs, secretary of defense, my security advisers to give me a plan to begin withdrawing our troops within 60 days," Hillary said on Meet The Press.
Let's take a look at the stats and how “well” the war has been going. According to the The Brookings Institution which is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, DC that conducts independent research, Troop and civilian casualties have been at record lows.
-Civilian casualties were at around 2,900 civilians in Jan of 07, down to just about 600 last month.
-October, November and December represented some of the lowest soldier casualties since the beginning of the war. All three months combined yielded fewer casualties than the entire month of June.
-Attacks on coalition troops have fallen since June from 4,500-5,000 reported attacks, to around 1500 attacks.
-Iraq military and police casualties from August have decreased 88%.
-U.S. troop casualties caused by IED’s have fallen 87% since June.
-2007 was also a benchmark for clearing out nearly 4 times the number of weapons cashes over previous years. In 2004 we cleared out 1,712 weapons cashes, and in 2007 we cleared 6,799.
Tom Foreman, from CNN Washington Bureau, had this to say. “The Iraqis no matter how much they have stumbled and failed in the political process are finally reopening their shops, their schools, and their neighborhoods.”
The point is to show how the war in Iraq has pushed candidates away because of the uncertainty it yields. There are of course a few moments of truth when a candidate can take credit for the current climate in Iraq without even doing anything. This is what Hillary said to Tim Russert on Meet The Press Sunday, January 13th.
"The point of the surge was to quickly move the Iraqi government and Iraqi people. That is only now beginning to happen, and I believe in large measure because the Iraqi government, they watch us, they listen to us. I know very well that they follow everything that I say. And my commitment to begin withdrawing our troops in January of 2009 is a big factor, as it is with Senator Obama, Senator Edwards, those of us on the Democratic side. It is a big factor in pushing the Iraqi government to finally do what they should have been doing all along."
Now with the current success in Iraq, there are tough decisions that may need to be made. What if the war continues to do well, and a Democratic elect decides to still carry out a 30 or 60 day withdrawal plan put in motion from the campaign? Why would you leave if the operations are successful? It is this uncertainty that has shut the candidates up, and may keep them quiet.
Success in Iraq is now as tangible as a hanging chad and it cannot be flicked aside. I believe it is more important now to discuss a candidates plan for Iraq while it seems to be moving forward. How would Huckabee continue success there? How would running out on our allies look to the rest of the world? Would Obama continue to push oil revenue sharing in Iraq without military support? How would McCain convince Iraq of it's desperate need for new election laws? Will John Edwards be able to find that nice bottle of Port in his 40,000 square foot home? These are all questions that need to be answered.
One thing is for certain in my mind, if the war continues to be successful and we continue to win in Iraq, pulling our troops out on a 60 day retreat would destroy everything we have fought for, and everything some 3,921 Americans have died for. It will make Iraq the next Korea, and it will become a forgotten war. We will have gone in, toppled Sadam, lost lives and bolted; leaving the people of Iraq to the fate of our enemy.
The John’s, or John McCain and John Edwards are the only two, both on opposite sides of the fence, that feel compelled to talk about it. Five months ago the democratic candidates almost seemed to plan out Iraq speeches and attempt to one up each other on what seemed to be the latest fad in taking the first opportunity to slander the Bush administration.
"I have said that as soon as I become president, I will ask the Joint Chiefs, secretary of defense, my security advisers to give me a plan to begin withdrawing our troops within 60 days," Hillary said on Meet The Press.
Let's take a look at the stats and how “well” the war has been going. According to the The Brookings Institution which is a nonprofit public policy organization based in Washington, DC that conducts independent research, Troop and civilian casualties have been at record lows.
-Civilian casualties were at around 2,900 civilians in Jan of 07, down to just about 600 last month.
-October, November and December represented some of the lowest soldier casualties since the beginning of the war. All three months combined yielded fewer casualties than the entire month of June.
-Attacks on coalition troops have fallen since June from 4,500-5,000 reported attacks, to around 1500 attacks.
-Iraq military and police casualties from August have decreased 88%.
-U.S. troop casualties caused by IED’s have fallen 87% since June.
-2007 was also a benchmark for clearing out nearly 4 times the number of weapons cashes over previous years. In 2004 we cleared out 1,712 weapons cashes, and in 2007 we cleared 6,799.
Tom Foreman, from CNN Washington Bureau, had this to say. “The Iraqis no matter how much they have stumbled and failed in the political process are finally reopening their shops, their schools, and their neighborhoods.”
The point is to show how the war in Iraq has pushed candidates away because of the uncertainty it yields. There are of course a few moments of truth when a candidate can take credit for the current climate in Iraq without even doing anything. This is what Hillary said to Tim Russert on Meet The Press Sunday, January 13th.
"The point of the surge was to quickly move the Iraqi government and Iraqi people. That is only now beginning to happen, and I believe in large measure because the Iraqi government, they watch us, they listen to us. I know very well that they follow everything that I say. And my commitment to begin withdrawing our troops in January of 2009 is a big factor, as it is with Senator Obama, Senator Edwards, those of us on the Democratic side. It is a big factor in pushing the Iraqi government to finally do what they should have been doing all along."
Now with the current success in Iraq, there are tough decisions that may need to be made. What if the war continues to do well, and a Democratic elect decides to still carry out a 30 or 60 day withdrawal plan put in motion from the campaign? Why would you leave if the operations are successful? It is this uncertainty that has shut the candidates up, and may keep them quiet.
Success in Iraq is now as tangible as a hanging chad and it cannot be flicked aside. I believe it is more important now to discuss a candidates plan for Iraq while it seems to be moving forward. How would Huckabee continue success there? How would running out on our allies look to the rest of the world? Would Obama continue to push oil revenue sharing in Iraq without military support? How would McCain convince Iraq of it's desperate need for new election laws? Will John Edwards be able to find that nice bottle of Port in his 40,000 square foot home? These are all questions that need to be answered.
One thing is for certain in my mind, if the war continues to be successful and we continue to win in Iraq, pulling our troops out on a 60 day retreat would destroy everything we have fought for, and everything some 3,921 Americans have died for. It will make Iraq the next Korea, and it will become a forgotten war. We will have gone in, toppled Sadam, lost lives and bolted; leaving the people of Iraq to the fate of our enemy.
By: Shawn VanHuss
Shawn is a writer for the American Defense Initiatve
Photo © by David Leeson
1 comments:
Iraq is the next big failure for the U.S. military if a democrat gets into the whitehouse.
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