Wes Davey is responding with the standard rhetoric of the anti-war crowd rather than actually listening to the message from the soldiers who have recently returned and seen the progress first hand. I believe that Mr. Davey served in Iraq in 2003 before he retired in 2005. That was before it got bad in 2006 and before the progress made in 2007. Vets for Freedom has numerous members in MN who served in Iraq during 2006 and 2007 that can give a straight up assessment of the situation and progress. The Iraq Vets Against the War web site has only 6 members listed from MN. Vets For Freedom had nearly 50 travel to Washington DC earlier this month with a message about the progress.
“How long and at what cost are we willing to endure in Iraq in pursuit of a vague notion of success?”
As long as it takes!!! What price will we pay if we lose? I don’t want to find that out. I’d rather pay the price to win.
“What does victory in Iraq mean?”
Victory in Iraq is defined as a stable, democratic country in the heart of the Middle East.
The question is can we provide the security for the Iraqi government to establish itself politically on top of the political gains (we did establish a Parliament, elect a President, turn over Provisional Authority, etc) made early in the war and propagate down to the local levels. The answer is yes.
Are the Iraqi people willing to step up and take care of themselves? Again, the answer is yes. Ask any Vet who has returned in the last 6-9 months and they can tell you how many Iraqi’s are standing on street corners guarding their own people and communities. As everyone in MN knows, we had 2600 National Guard troops return in 2007. Those troops entered the war at the worst of times and can attest to the changes and progress that was made by the time they left 16 months later. The spike in violence in Basra is another glowing example of Iraqis taking care of their own. Yes, there were issues (I know someone will cite the Iraqi Army defectors) but the mission was successful because Iraqis handled the fight on the ground, alone.
Victory in Iraq means a country that no longer supports terrorism. An Iraq that doesn’t pay the families of suicide bombers. An Iraq that doesn’t have terrorist training camps. Victory is an Iraq that is not a State Sponsor of Terrorism.
“Stay the Course”
The military on the ground has changed course numerous times from adapting from the threat of WMD (more than just President Bush and the Republicans thought Iraq had them and chose to send us to war) to the threat of IED’s and yet again to the Surge strategy that is working very effectively.
Yes, there are significant measurable numbers to cite here. Like a 70 percent decline in attacks since June; a 90 percent drop in sectarian violence, and a tremendous surge of some 200,000 Iraqis joining their own security forces in the past fifteen months.
“How do we get rid of tens of thousands of Terrorists”
That happens through the long term changing from an oppressive dictatorship into a democratic society. I would hope that a PSYOP (37F) soldier would understand the long term objective and planning to change a society takes years and sometimes generations. Well beyond when the fighting stops.
It happens by helping them build a society that allows the young men and women to go to school and learn Reading, Writing and Arithmetic rather than learning the fundamentals of terrorism. It happens by helping them build an infrastructure so people can have electricity and water. It happens through building a society with free markets where people can work for what they want and enjoy it when they get it.
It happens by taking away the breeding ground for terrorism. Yes, Iraq was a breeding ground for terrorism just like Afghanistan prior to our invasion regardless of the Al Qaeda affiliation or Weapons of Mass Destruction. It is well documented that Iraq had no connection to 9/11 but had significant connections to terrorism.
“Lower-ranking officers and enlisted soldiers are leaving the military in droves because of repetitive rotations to war zones, and recruiting increasing numbers of high-school dropouts and criminals is hardly the best way to replace the soldiers who have left the Army.”
Interesting argument with no supporting numbers, just commenting that “droves” of soldiers are leaving the military.
Here are the facts from the Army web site (2006 was the latest numbers). Interesting that at the worst time in the war and after more than 3 years in Iraq the Army met retention and recruiting goals.
http://www.army.mil/recruitingandretention/
Army Announces Retention, Recruiting Numbers for FY 2006
Retention
The Army announced that the active-duty Army, Army National Guard and Army Reserve exceeded Fiscal Year 2006 retention goals for the year.
• The active-duty Army closed the fiscal year at 105 percent of its retention mission. The goal was to re-enlist 64,200 Soldiers and 67,410 Soldiers actually reenlisted.
• The Army Reserve closed out fiscal year 2006 at 103 percent of its retention mission, with 18,243 Soldiers reenlisting. The goal was to retain 17,712 Soldiers.
• The Army National Guard finished 2006 at 118 percent. The Guard reenlisted 41,152 Soldiers, surpassing its goal by 6,277.
The second argument is that we are replacing soldiers with dropouts and criminals. I suspect this is a way to discredit the men and women serving in uniform. I left my MBA program to serve in Afghanistan by the way.
On the new Recruitment side we have these numbers.
Recruitment
More than 175,000 qualified men and women have answered the Call to Duty and enlisted in the Army in FY06, 32,000 more than FY 05.
• The active Army recruited 80,635 active Soldiers—101% of the 80,000 mission.
o Most enlistees since 1997.
o This exceeds the FY05 accomplishment (73,373) by 7K
o FY07 mission is again 80,000
• USAREC recruited 25,378 Army Reserve Soldiers—99.5% of 25,500 mission.
o This exceeded the FY05 accomplishment (19,400) by almost 6K.
o USAREC also recruited more than 300 Interpreter/Translators (09L), native heritage speakers into the Individual Ready Reserve (IRR) that did not count toward their 25,500 USAR mission.
o FY07 mission is 26,500, 1K larger than this year
• The Army National Guard recruited 69,042 Soldiers—98.6% of 70,000 mission
o Most enlistees since 1992
o Exceeds the FY05 accomplishment (50,219) by 18.8K
o FY07 mission is again 70,000
Active End Strength of approx 505,000 is up 12K from FY05 ES of 492,728, the highest endstrength since 1995. Reserve End Strength of approx 190,000 is 1K more than the FY05 endstrength of 189,005. Army National Guard End Strength of approx 346,000 is up 13K from FY05 endstrength of 333,177, the highest endstrength since Dec. 2003.
“Both Vets For Freedom and Iraq Veterans Against the War are concerned about what will happen to Iraqi citizens when the American military leaves Iraq”
Mr. Davey makes the statement that Iraq Vets Against the War are concerned about what will happen to Iraqis if we leave today (speculation is that thousands of Iraqis will die) and still he advocates for that strategy. He’s concerned about killing terrorists earlier in his article to “get rid of” them (i.e. speculating we will need to kill thousands more terrorists) and claims that is not morally acceptable. Yet he is advocating letting thousands of Iraqis die by pulling out today. I’d rather we keep killing terrorists and give the Iraqi people a chance. If I have to make a moral choice about killing people I will choose to support the people who want a free society NOT the people who kill innocent men, women and children.
The soldiers that I speak with think the fight is worth winning and we have shown that we can win it. All we ask now is for the American public, the President and most important, Congress to LET US WIN.
I am a proud member of Vets For Freedom and I support our mission and I believe we can win. Let Us Win.