McCain wants more troops in Iraq; the generals don’t:

Military officials and defense experts, however, said yesterday that significantly escalating the number of U.S. combat troops in Iraq is largely implausible because it would severely strain the military, would be unsustainable for more than a few months and would offer no discernable long-term benefit. (Post)

I’m no military expert — I’ve never even been in the military — but it seems to me that

  1. if things in Iraq are deteriorating;
  2. if our military is already so thinly spread that it would “severely strain the military” to add more troops;
  3. if the military says that adding more troops “would offer no discernable long-term benefit” to the operation…

If all these things are the case, then it’s hard to see how anyone in America could look at the situation, with that knowledge, and not see Iraq as the hopeless quagmire that it is.

“America’s new Vietnam!” was the cry from opponents in the States and enemies abroad, but this is so much more disastrous. Vietnam didn’t produce an army of individuals seeking revenge coupled with a culture in which individual “military” actions are the norm. Vietnam didn’t produce terrorists, in other words, and it’s difficult to foresee anything other than that coming out of Iraq.

If we stay, it’s an ever-present propaganda tool, not to mention a gigantic terrorist training camp. If we run, we “embolden” the enemy — not that they need any help with that. Still, it will prove to be a powerful recruiting device. “Look at our success with the Infidels! Imagine if we more aggressively take Jihad to their soil!”

In other words, “stay the course” and we make things worse; “cut and run” (or rather, “redeploy” or “withdraw” or any number of euphemisms) and we make things worse.

The problem is that we aren’t just fighting insurgents who want us out of Iraq. We’re also fighting insurgents whose primary goal seems to be civil war. If that’s true, we’re not trying to prevent civil war from breaking out as an unintended consequence; we’re trying to stop people from inciting civil war. It introductions a consciousness to the actions, not to mention, in this case, a perverted religious conscientiousness.