Strategy - What Strategy?

The Administration published a booklet called the "National Strategy on Victory in Iraq" (available on the whitehouse.gov site). All I can say after reading all thirty five pages is "wow, are we really paying these guys for putting out this stuff?" Basically, it was a neatly bulleted document encouraging the public to "stay the course" even as the Congress moves to cut funding to programs that benefit the poor and elderly in this country.

Further, there was no explanation of what victory looked like. It is important in a strategy to have a clear goal in mind. There was no explanation of how that victory will be achieved and who is going to achieve it. If it is the Military, that could be a problem: reports indicate an ongoing decline in recruitment which has lead to decreasing standards for enlistees. National Guard units will not, under law, be permitted to return to combat IF they have already spent a specified time away. Congressman Murtha, who is quite knowledgable about Military Affairs, has stated that the Military is tired...and reaching a breaking point. Others in Washington state that within 6 months, the numbers deployed will HAVE to be cut back...citing lack of adequately trained replacements, fatique and other issues

If victory is to be achieved politically, that too presents a problem. In case the reader has missed it, our President is unable to go anywhere in the world without protesters following. Even in carefully venued places in the US, opposition voices are heard. The Vice President is hardly ever heard from. Rice is going to face the hot button issue of CIA secret prisons in European countries who face expulsion from the EU if found complicit.

And then there is the ongoing loss of life in Iraq...on both sides. And for what? An incomplete strategy that only serves to document the inadequacies of this Administration? A strategy that goes against the will of the majority of Americans?

It is time for both new leadership...and a new strategy. It is time to bring our soldiers home and care for them when they get here.