It's a matter of minutes after President Bush gave his address to the nation regarding his plan to send over 20,000 more troops to Iraq. He addressed many valid points of concern, even accepting responsibility for failures in Iraq. A bold move, given the change in the political environment.
But therein lies the larger problem with our Iraq strategy. Politics.
I can't say when the war in Iraq first became politicized or even who started it, but once politics got injected, things started to go to Hell in a handbasket. And whomever started it should be ashamed. War isn't about polling numbers; there are actual human lives at stake, people who have loved ones and friends who feel an emotional void when one of our military comes home maimed or killed.
On the ground in Iraq, politics is just as big a problem. Our soldiers are being tied down by rules and regulations not designed to win, but designed to be politically correct. And if a soldier doesn't play by the PC rules, he or she is condemned in the media or at home. After all, we can't offend those who want to kill us, can we?
Essentially, our military is having to fight a war on multiple fronts, with one of them being the home front. When we let politicians run wars, they end in failure. Vietnam proved that. And like it or not, we're on the verge of losing Iraq like we did Vietnam for the same reason.
Listen, it doesn't matter if you like or dislike the President. It doesn't matter if you think Iraq was a huge military blunder. We're IN Iraq now and we owe it to the men and women risking their lives there so we don't risk ours here to take the politics out of warfare and let them do the job they signed up to do.
Bush's plan to send more troops is sound militarilly, but it's only half the battle. Until we get the politicians out of the soldiers' way, we'll continue to lose ground, and possibly the war.
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