NY Times op-ed column written by Owen West, a Major in the army reserves whose served two tours in Iraq. Also a wall street trader.
Presents the best argument for staying that I’ve seen yet. Nothing about terrorism, just the whole “We fucked it up, we gotta fix it” mentality.
“The surge must be accompanied by a commensurate surge in Iraqi troops. To date, the Iraqis have simply been shifting soldiers from other areas into Baghdad. But these are stop-gap soldiers ? as are our own ? when what we seek is permanence. The Iraqi government must double the size of its army, to 300,000 combat troops from 150,000 today. The American surge will give them the breathing room to do so, and a deadline by which it must be done.”
As you can see above, he is also calling for Iraq’s to double their troop numbers.
While I don’t necessarily agree that setting a time table is an over-all bad thing, I do see this mans point, and very well. I still do not think this war can truly be “won”, but I do believe we can help to stabilize Iraq a bit. I don’t think the Bush “surge” is the answer, but this guy produces the strongest argument I’ve seen so far for a troop increase.
Thoughts and/or comments?