pudge's Journal: Bush's Military Plan

I've heard not one convincing argument that Bush's plan has no chance to significantly increase Iraq's chances of having a stable government and country.

Because of that, I am in favor of it. Even if you think Iraq was a bad idea and that we shouldn't be there and so on, we owe it to Iraq, to our taxpayers, and to our soldiers to try to make this work, doing something that has a chance, that we've not tried.

Maybe if this fails, we go home. I dunno. But I am willing to give at least this one more chance.

I heard Zbigniew Brzezinski, the National Security Adviser under Carter, who said that this is not a "military strategy, but a military tactic ... which is not going to alter the problems we confront," and that it is not a political strategy.

As to the latter, the political strategy remains unchanged: help create stability so Iraq can get down to fixing its problems. As to the former, the strategy is clear: the extra manpower gives you more ability to clear and hold, which is then going to help create the aforementioned stability.

I don't think the plan is perfect, but it seems like a reasonable one, that has a real chance of working.

From what I can tell

[Talinom]

Since nobody can seem to come up with a better idea they would rather just bring everyone home and wash their hands of the whole situation. The problem that I see is the if we are forced to pull out by the Democratically controlled congress it will make their fear of this becoming another Vietnam true.

But I feel they can prevent this from happening if they read even a little bit of Jihad Watch [jihadwatch.org] and The Religion of Peace [thereligionofpeace.com]. From what I can tell, and I am the first to admit ignorance on this, they seem to mer

Ol' Zbigniew

[polymath69]

I heard Zbigniew Brzezinski [...]

Funny you should mention him. This has got to be one of a very few names that I've never heard, nor have any idea how to pronounce. I spent some time on Wikipedia last week about it, even, but don't know how to read that phonetic alphabet.

Could you say his name, as a person who records sounds, into your microphone, and put it on your webpage, simply to enlighten me, or should I say give me one fewer thing to wonder about?

Re:

[pudge]

You could send the question to Ask Pudge [pudge.net]!

Re:

[polymath69]

Well, I was hoping for a two-second audio clip rather than a 30-minute one, but... consider it submitted. :-)

Re:

[pudge]

The first Ask Pudge was 30 minutes-ish, but most are under 10. Today's was exactly 10:00! :-)