Pace: Success In Iraq Based On Whether Iraqis ‚Äö√Ñ√≤Feel Better Today Than They Did Yesterday’
During a press conference last week, outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace said that “the recent rise in U.S. troop deaths in Iraq is the ‚Äö√Ñ√≤wrong metric‚Äö√Ñ√≤ to use in assessing the effectiveness” of the U.S. military in Iraq. “So it’s not about levels of violence,” he explained. “It’s about progress ‚Äö√Ѭ∂ in the minds of the Iraqi people.“…. Today, Pace made similar remarks. He called the measuring the level of violence in Iraq a “self-defeating approach to tracking results” and added, “What’s most important is do the Iraqi people feel better about today than they did about yesterday, and do they think tomorrow’s going to be better than today?” When asked if he actually knew how the Iraqi people currently feel about the U.S. occupation of Iraq he conceded, “I do not have that in my head.”
I have no doubt that Marine Gen. and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Peter Pace is a brilliant and accomplish officer. After all, one does not rise through the ranks to his position without having a record of many years of accomplishments and forthright leadership. One of the problems often associated with rising to a high field grade position, though, is that an officer sometimes loses touch with the reality of war. Pace has seen combat, and he knows the pain and suffering it can cause. This is why I’m so surprised that someone as accomplished and decorated as he is can thoroughly discount the importance of American deaths in Iraq. to posit that judging the success of the war in Iraq on the number of American casualties is “the wrong metric” is sheer lunacy. If you’ve lost a son or daughter in Iraq, it’s absolutely the correct metric to be using. Almost 3,600 Americans have lost their lives to date…and we have what to show for it? Chaos, instability, and a civil war that no lucid mind could possibly hope to sort out. For Gen. Pace to parrot the BushWorld mantra, which, simply put, can be boiled down to “victory is just around the corner”, is ludicrous at best and thoroughly dismissive and disrespectful of those who have sacrificed their lives for…well, for nothing, really.
Of course, if the feelings of the Iraqi people are to be the preferred metric, even Pace would have to admit that Iraq has been a complete, abject failure- a clusterf—k of the first order:
39 percent of Iraqis said they feel their lives are “going well,” compared to 71 percent in November 2005.”
40 percent of Iraqis said the situation in Iraq will be “somewhat or much better” a year from now, compared to 69 percent in November 2005.
26 percent of Iraqis said they feel “very safe” in their neighborhoods, compared to 63 percent in November 2005.
82 percent of Iraqis said they “lack confidence” in coalition forces.
69 percent of Iraqis said coalition forces make “the security situation worse.”
I realize that Pace is trying to put a positive spin on a horrible situation, but let’s get real, shall we? Part of the job of a senior military officer is to deal with the situation on the ground as it is, not as they wish it were. No amount of wishing, hoping, spinning, and/or propagandizing can ameliorate the reality that what we have here is this generation’s Vietnam- a quagmire of truly impressive proportions from which there’s no easy or clean escape available. To paraphrase an acquaintance, we’re f—ked, completely and totally f—ked. There’s no exit strategy, no plan, and Americans keep dying by the Humvee-load because no one in BushWorld will admit to the reality that their policy in Iraq is a total, complete, abject failure…by ANY metric. The sad thing is that Gen. Pace is still playing the Good Soldier by trying to convince Americans that what we have here is not Roseanne Barr, it’s really Scarlett Johanssen.
Try selling that propaganda to the family that just buried their son….
