One is the Loneliest Number

As the (real) New York Times reports above, in two days the United States will be the only "coalition" member fighting in Iraq when the last British, Romanian, and Australian forces are sent home. It was always a rather pathetic coalition - even if John Kerry had remembered Poland in the 2004 presidential debates - with the US contributing the vast majority of troops and thus doing the vast majority of dying and wounding. At least George H. W. Bush put together a genuine multinational force for the first Gulf War, with several Middle Eastern nations (especially Saudi Arabia) contributing financially. W. couldn't even get that part right - few military powers other than Tony Blair's puppet government wanted any part of Bush's War of Choice. So now it's down to just brave American men and women to keep paying the price for the biggest foreign policy mistake in our history. Let's hope they all make it home.

Maybe the fake NY Times headline will eventually come true --

Let's All Come Home and Stay There

Bob Woodruff, the ABC reporter who was badly wounded in Iraq three years ago, has gone back to report the war and especially the experiences of those who have suffered traumatic head injuries. His story raises a number of important and perhaps disturbing issues, in the light of Chris Hedges' remarkable War is a Force that Gives us Meaning. Clearly Woodruff is a brave and committed journalist who should be commended for his concern for the injured soldiers and Marines. But I can't help wondering why someone who has suffered so would want to potentially put himself and his family through such trauma (or worse) again. And of course this also raises the question of the much higher number of survivors of horrific wounds that would have in past conflicts almost certainly been fatal. Another in a long line of reasons to Get the Hell Out of Iraq Now --

Image from: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/14/arts/television/14woodruff.html?_r=1&8dpc

The Strange Fog Rolls Back In

Robert McNamara's recent death has me wondering about the comparisons between Vietnam and Afghanistan. (Check out the fierce response to McNamara's death by Joseph Galloway, the co-author of the fine We Were Soldiers Once . . . and Young at the above link). Barack Obama as senator and candidate had no real qualms about Afghanistan, and has in fact substantially increased troop numbers and adopted a more aggressive policy. Is Obama the Lyndon Johnson to George W. Bush's JFK? At what point will this war become Obama's, and how long will we put up with this particular quagmire?