Questions to the General and Some Answers to His Rhetoric

There's a joke among employees who have worked overtime. It goes, "you've done a good job, now take the rest of the day off." So goes the rhetoric of General Petraeus. He has had the unmitigated gall to inform us that he is hopeful that we can perhaps draw down troops in the spring of 2008. Now I'm no general, but it seems this fella' is stating the obvious. As I recall, troop deployments have been extended to fifteen months which will support the surge until the spring of 2008, at which time they will have to further extend their tours. This is obviously just some kind of political bone being thrown to those who do not support the war and I take exception to the general trying that deception.

And, why haven't any of our illustrious elected officials asked some rather obvious questions of the general? Here are just a few of my recommendations:

"General, if things don't go well, are you willing to further extend troop deployments?"

"General, what effect have the extended deployments had on our troops and how would they be effected by further extending those deployments?"

"General, will you ever recommend a draft?"

"General, how accurate are your numbers given the mass displacement of Iraqis?"

"General, do the numbers on your charts (even if they are lower) indicate an acceptable number of American and Iraqi casualties?

"General, what will be the state of our Armed Forces and their readiness if we continue in Iraq? Begin redeployment? Immediately redeploy?"

"General, how much money is it going to cost us to get our military back to where it was before this war?"

"General are you aware that if each day you visited the grave site of an American Serviceman who died in this war, you'd spend the next ten years of your life doing just that?"

As we used to tell sailors their first time at sea - "Shipmate, it doesn't really matter how deep the water is if you're drowning." We are drowning in Iraq. We are drowning in violence and destruction. We are drowning in mayhem and death. We are drowning in not only the financial debt, but the moral one this country shall have to bear for future generations. One word should finally be the clarion call of every American with the courage to see the truth -- ENOUGH!

Comments

[wiseoldgranny]

Sorry link to

http://icasualties.org/oif/

[wiseoldgranny]

US Deaths By Month:
Year Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec
2003 0 0 65 74 37 30 48 35 31 44 82 40
2004 47 20 52 135 80 42 54 66 80 64 137 72
2005 107 58 35 52 80 78 54 85 49 96 84 68
2006 62 55 31 76 69 61 43 65 72 106 70 112
2007 83 81 81 104 126 101 79 84 32 0 0 0

-----------------------------
Year US Deaths US Wounded
2003... 486....... 2408
2004... 849........8002
2005... 846....... 5948
2006... 822....... 6398
2007... 771........4430
Total.. 3774..... 27186
-------------------------

Iraqi Security Forces and Civilian Deaths
Period Total
Sep-07 276
Aug-07 1674
Jul-07 1690
Jun-07 1345
May-07 1980
Apr-07 1821
Mar-07 2977
Feb-07 3014
Jan-07 1802
Dec-06 1752
Nov-06 1864
Oct-06 1539
Sep-06 3539
Aug-06 2966
Jul-06 1280
Jun-06 870
May-06 1119
Apr-06 1009
Mar-06 1092
Feb-06 846
Jan-06 779
Iraqi Security Forces and Civilian Deaths Details
Note: Iraqi deaths based on news reports . This is no
----------------------------------

Please note that there are:
more US troop deaths in 07 than any other year
more troops killed every month in 07 than any
other year during the same month except Jan 05
and April 04

Iraqi deaths (not true total) are about the
same, especially since there are aprox 2
million refugees out of Iraq, 1 1/2 million
out of their homes and towns in Iraq, and 1
million dead.

Petraeus stated that US and Iraqi causualties were 'dramatically reduced'.

Is that cherry-picking? or lying?

[ReasonIsMyReligion]

Huzzah.

Add one more (an extension of one by Mr. Baxley):

"General, given you are the author of the Army's counterinsurgency manual, how can you NOT ask us for hundreds of thousands more troops, and implicitly a DRAFT? Do you not stand by the recommendations in your own Army Field Manual?"

[Frankly Speaking]

Another couple of qustions; Somebody help me remember the answers to these questions. I"m sure the Bushit Administration has given the answers, I just don"t remember.

At what point do we leave Iraq? What significant event will bring about an entire troop pullout? I seem to remember the statement that "when the Iraqis can stand up on their own." Well by virtue of what has happened in Al Anbar Provence, the Iraqis" are standing on their own.

Additionally, Thank you Chuck Hagel; "How much American blood and treasure do we give to this investment?"

[wldnswmmr]

Excellent list of questions, sir. Senator Jack Reed of RI asked question #1, in effect, about whether the General had recommended extending deployments to 18 months, and whether the March 2008 draw-down was not actually a military necessity in the absence of an extension. The General danced rather adroitly around these questions, saying he had not "recommended" an extension, and then saying he wasn't aware of what the status among the reserves was as far as replacing troops in March 2008 if the existing troops were allowed to go home after 15 months. It is very curious that the Commander in the Iraq theatre would not actually have informed himself on the reinforcements at his disposal, yet the answer went unchallenged, of course. He gets credit for "honesty" by not knowing the answer. Similarly, he professed ignorance about whether the overall policy in Iraq made America safer or not, saying he had not "stepped back" from his mission to think about it. A clever man, for sure, and once again a witness plainly smarter than the dim bulb senators who have no idea how to interrogate witnesses (your background is military, mine is legal).