Personal Finance

Earl Anthony · Guest

Tuesday, Sen. John F. Kerry (D) Massachusetts demonstrated in the OP/ED
Pages of the New York Times in a piece “The Speech the President Should
Give” one reason he stills sits at the same Senate desk he’s held down
since 1984. Mr. Kerry’s remarks seem a grab bag of initiatives untried
by the Bush administration in Iraq for one giant reason: They will not
work. With so many initiatives, Mr. Kerry must be duck hunting again
with his scatter gun.

Where to begin breaking down his missive is the least troubling question
presented. Mr. Kerry calls for a U.N. Multinational Force to provide
Iraq border integrity. U.N. Resolution 1546 ensured Iraqi Sovereignty
and Territorial Integrity along with the right of the Iraqi Government
to ask the U.N. Mandated Multinational force set out in 1546 to leave
Iraq at the their behest. In short to answer Mr. Kerry, a construct
exists for all member nations who would join the U.N. Multinational
Force in Iraq.

If Mr. Kerry were to bolster his work, he might have included language
placing Syria and Iran on notice for violations of Iraq's borders in
blatant disregard to Resolution 1546. Standing up, stanching the flow of
terrorists in Iraq makes perfect sense considering the growing number of
foreign terrorists our service people fight in Iraq.

With the foreign fighters streaming into Iraq to fight along side
indigenous Sunni Nationalists and discarded Baathists, Mr. Kerry, grinds
the old saw that the Bush administration “destroyed the Iraqi Army
through de-Baathification.” The best of the Iraqi Army fled before the
might of the American military, and the best were Baathists. When we did
reach for a Baathist General, Jasim Mohamed Saleh, his retread Baathist
troops failed to quell Fallujah last year. The Baathist retread
"General” did exactly nothing to stop the violence perpetrated by
Baathists and Jihadists. The U.S. finally was forced to send in the
Marines house to house.

Saddam’s Iraqi Army was never a force to be counted upon, and what would
the human rights and fighting record be today if it were still in place?
Would the soldiers trust the old Army as they do the new? The answers
here are self evident, but to open some eyes, 77% of Iraqi Soldiers have
confidence in the New Iraqi Army.

Mr. Kerry has issues with the training schedule and by innuendo the
performance of the New Iraqi Army. U.S. Army Doctrine is “Train to
Standard, not to Time.” The standard is a fighting force that can beat
the insurgency over time while respecting human rights of terrorists and
citizens alike. Disciplined soldiers are far less likely to commit
atrocities, while unit cohesion means soldiers can depend upon one
another and their officers. Chain of command is paramount when fighting
Para-military forces or straight up force on force. Mr. Kerry relies
upon personal experience with his accelerated training for Vietnam, but
Senator, your Yale degree put you at the head of the class.

The New York Times piece promotes independent Militias to be called upon
as National Guard formations. Didn’t the U.S. and Iraqi Armies fight
Muqtada al-Sadr’s Militia in Najaf, Karballah and Sadr City last year?
Do Militias have the same chain of command and human rights attributes
of the New Iraqi Army? No, and these formations are wielded by
charismatic leaders that must be dealt with politically if their forces
are used by the state. Al-Sadr was an archetype charismatic leader
causing political and military problems with his Militia. The U.S. and
Iraqi Governments need no more of this type threat to stability.

Militia as National Guard is a wretched idea bound to cause innumerable
problems politically and militarily if implemented. Thomas Friedman
deserves the blame here for his New York Times column last week calling
for just this type of “solution” to the security problem. When political
leaders or columnists with no intellectual grounding play soldier, it’s
best to let the pros handle the hard questions. In this case, the pros
are Central Command and the Department of Defense.

The political front in Iraq can always use a kick in the tires.
Ayatollah al-Sistani gave the Sunnis a leg up on the Constitutional
front this week. The Ayatollah mediates a deal where representation will
be provincial based instead of the National Slate handed down by the
United Nations for the last election. This new framework ensures a
certain amount of seats for the Sunnis no matter their turnout. The
Kurds, too, are sure to benefit.

For those who long for something other than the suicide car bombings and
IED attacks saturating the media these days, news of progress in Iraq is
available at Central Command’s Web Site http://www.centcom.mil/ News
such as Operation Squeeze Play where over 400 terrorists where rounded
up by three battalions of the 10th Mountain Division and four brigades
of the Iraqi Army in Southern Iraq, or schools, water treatment plants,
police stations and other infrastructure being built by Iraqis for
Iraqis, while the terrorists build what? This is not to say the security
situation in Iraq is near quelled, but as Mr. Bush said Tuesday night,
“progress is being made.”

David W. Moon
TNcolmoon2@aol.com

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