The American People will not Accept Patience

President Johnson said in 1966, "the solution to Vietnam is patience."

President Nixon said in 1969, "As our commanders in the field determine that the South Vietnamese are able to assume a greater portion of the responsibility for the defense of their own territory, troops will come back."

Today, we hear the same misleading rhetoric coming from this Administration. In Vietnam, we were talking about 10 years of patience and in the end a U.S. military solution did not work. Now, five years into the war in Iraq, the president continues to seek a U.S. military solution to an Iraqi civil war. There will be no real progress in Iraq until key political, economic and diplomatic improvements are made by the Iraqis.

The facts on the ground in Iraq indicate that electricity is below pre-war levels (only 2 hours a day in Baghdad), oil production remains below pre-war production and at least 50% of the Iraqi population is unemployed.

All Americans realize that stability in the Middle East is important to our national security. The American people will not accept patience as a strategy while the Iraqi Government continues to ignore key political and economic benchmarks.

Comments

[FOXYLADY]

Perhaps leaving would be the entire solution. The area seems to always be in a turmol so leave and let them keep killing each other off. This just might settle the situation in the Middle East. As for Israel, it has proved able to take care of itself = a more civilized nation than most of the Arab/Muslims states, it seems...to me......??­???

[mkindt]

Let's remeber that we have been at war with Iraq since 1991 and that we periodically bombed locations within Iraq in the years prior to the most recent invasion of 5 years ago. That's why this is truly the endless war.

[josieb]

Why should the Iraqi government keep dancing to our tune? We decided to invade and destroy their country and we have. And that stupid ''if we dom't fight them over there. . .'' American lives aren't worth more than Iraqis or anybody else's. We need to get out of there and stop using our soldiers as cannon fodder for the Bush Administration's pretensions to empire.
Let the Iraqis sort out this mess in their own time. We've got enough challenges and contradictions in this country to take up our time for several generations.

[nippersdad]

Mr. Murtha

Actually, as long as I have you on the line. We, those of us in your party, have a right to self determination as well. We vote you into office, we pay your salaries. We want some political benchmarks met with regard to the impeachment of George Bush and his cronies in office.

We will not be patient about it, we will not be pleasant about it. By not doing that which you and your colleagues swore to do in your oath of office, to uphold the Constitution, you render all that it stands for meaningless. Why on earth would the Iraqi's want to emulate the dysfunctional mess we have in Washington anyway, they have enough problems.

[nippersdad]

Mr. Murtha:

You say That "Americans will not accept patience as a strategy while the Iraqi Gov't. continues to ignore key political and economic benchmarks­."

Well, that is just the problem, isn't it. WE, as Nouri Al Maliki said the other day, aren't the ones who have to live there. It shouldn't be up to us to determine what their key political/­diplomatic and economic benchmarks are.

They appear to be doing exactly what they need to be doing. A democracy in a country which is sixty percent Shiite is going to reflect Shiite values. Values which are shared by neighboring Iran. It should come as no surprise, therefore, that Maliki should go to Iran and Syria to discuss their shared values.

The same goes for the Sunnis in Western Iraq. They appear to be clearing a homeland for themselves in El Anbar, with our help.

The Kurds have never given up their right to self determination, wise move.

Iraq is forming its own series of states to be aligned with their own philosophical counterparts in the region, and who are we to stop them? This is what should have been done by the British seventy years ago.

The same goes for their oil reserves. They have decided to sell oil to China, probably with China's help in getting it out of the ground. They probably consider this a better deal than having Exxon/Mobil et al walk off with eighty percent of their profits, Wise move.

These are pretty significant economic/p­olitical/d­iplomatic benchmarks happening because of, or perhaps in spite of, our bungled attempts to rip them off.

We screwed up, we need to accept that, allow them to find the destiny THEY WANT, and move on.
Any further moves on our part to guide their destiny to our benefit will backfire. Our lack of patience is not with them, it is with you and your colleagues.

[Macready]

Thank you nippersdad . . .

[realpolitic]

We could easily be in a Iraq with a heavy troop concentration for a decade. America is not good at fighting long wars. Progress will not be made, as Congressman Murtha suggests, until the Iraqis have electricity and jobs and gasoline to get around. Further, we are making a generation of enemies across the globe. A draw down of our forces in Iraq would ease tensions and give Iraqis confidence with solving their own problems. We should keep as low a profile as possible and quietly come home in phases.

[Kirby]

With all of us being fed palliative pablum by the media, and witnessing the absolute cowardice of both democrats and republicans in Congress, there has been an erosion of opposition expression. A phenomenon diminishing Congress' current worth to zilch.

[Macready]

Rep Murtha thank you for posting . .. if you want the war in Iraq to end you have to cut off the funding and you have to impeach: first cheney and gonzo -- then georgie . . . I do wish you and others in Congress would stop talking about the goals the Iraqi's have to reach . . . America illegally invaded a sovereign country for oil contracts . . . Iraq's infrastructure has been wiped out . . . hundreds of thousands are dead; millions homeless, without jobs, water, food and basic medical care . . . America has to accept responsibility for this . . . stop blaming the Iraqi's it is inappropriate, irresponsible and shameful.

Unless impeachment is put on the agenda when Congress reconvenes you have failed both the American people and the Iraqi's whom this country has treated so abominably.

[cylindar]

Yeah, your right about that!!! AS John Q Public I am getting very very very very very tired of this Iraq thing. As a veteran I am not just tired I am very very very very angry at what Bush is doing to our military as an institution and most importantly to it's people. It's bad news and it's raising the monster. I think Bush needs to get while the gettins good. Cause if he don't that door is going to slap him in the ass on the way out. No doubt about it!!!

[cynara]

Keep up the pressure on 'em, Rep. Murtha. Your voice is needed, and, at least by this voter, highly appreciated.

[BPCentrisAmerican]

Tommy Franks had to negotiate with Rumsfeld, who wanted to go in with 98,000 men, after 5 battle plans Rumsfeld relented after Franks threatened to resign, according to USA and World Report, not exactly liberal. Rumfeld and Wolfowitz could not afford the controversy of canning another general officer. Notice how Franks left got of Dodge why the getting was good, sort of like Eisenhower retiring after D-Day, my guess is he knew what was coming and did not want to be associated with the big CF, might ruin his book deal. I'm glad my father did not have to serve under 4 star hacks, who worry more about their legacies than their men.

[win2kpro]

Rep. Murtha,

Perhaps you and some and some of your
colleauges namely Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid could gain some insight on the real feelings of the American people by watching General Wesley Clark's keynote speech at the Yearly KOS Convention.

This has to be one of the greatest speech's I have heard in the past decade.

If only the Democratic Representatives and Senators had the intestinal fortitude of General Clark there could be some significant changes in attitudes in Washington immediately.

http://www.yearlykosconvention.org/node/726

[priorzola]

Patience is the greatest weapon that the Iraqis possess in their arsenal. They have seen the likes of us before; from the Babylonians to the Persians to the Britons to the Americans; they know that in the end; whatever empire professes to control them will, eventually, weary of the venture and slump away with their tails between their legs. And the Iraqis will inherent whatever best and, perhaps, worst qualities of the occupier.

Americans were pretty much done with this war after 3 years. The people we now call Iraqis have been known to be able to wait it our 30 years or, even, 300 years.

The problem with the Vietnam analogy is that is tries to compare apples and oranges. In Vietnam the chasm in that nation was caused by an economic ideology that had existed, in earnest, at that point about 50 years. The cultural split in Iraq that we are currently interferring with is one that has existed for nearly 1500 years. Do we have that kind of patience? I don't think so.

The time (and money and resources), on our end, would be better spent developing alternative energy sources so we no longer rely on the Middle East so much and the countries in the region can develop and diversify their economies beyond the reliance on one resource.

[Gonzalez]

We keep listening to the democrats on how we need to get out of Iraq and yet I see nothing being done. What did we put the democrats in power for? This Congress needs to get some coutage from somewhere. There is none and the republicans know it and they play you guys for fools. When is the democratic party going to wake up and realize that the republicans don't care about the country all they care is about keeping their party in power. Wake up allready and do something!­!!!!!!!!!!­!!

[timbyrnes]

"All Americans realize that stability in the Middle East is important to our national security."
I don't forsee stability in the middle east in the near future and don't have a problem with that. How this impacts our national interest I am not sure.