Just because some colonel wants to leave...

ARTICLE: Senior Army Officer Says it's Time to Leave Iraq, by Paul McLeary, Ares7/30/2009

While you always want to encourage skeptical internal viewpoints, outsiders--to include the press--need to keep such dissent in perspective--as in, it's never hard to locate significant and passionate desire within the military to move out. You never want to dampen that instinct, because it's a good one.

But you don't treat it like an all-powerful threshold either. Nobody likes to do rehab, but just treatin'-and-streetin' almost never works.

Gates is talking accelerating the withdrawl, but don't kid yourself about any complete quit. It will not happen for years, even as we go so low that our public perceives a "withdrawal."

Comments

[Captain George S. Harris USN (]

Am convinced that Colonel Reese is on the mark. Sticking around is not gaining us anything but more holes in the sacred ground of Arlington National Cemetery. When are we going to wake up? We are n o longer the solution, we are the problem. While the ISF may be strong enough, I fully believe that sectarian violence is going to increase and our ability to do anything is going to decrease. Why waste more lives, time and money?