Juan Cole Debunks 10 Myths About Iraq
One wonders what's in the mind of Bush when he proposes a "surge" of 25,000 - 30,000 men to clean out Baghdad. The biggest myth of all is that our military could do the operation on the cheap without asking the American people to make sacrifices. General Shensiki was unwavering in his insistence that less than 500,000 troops was too small a force and he was fired early on.But if it [winning] means the establishment of a stable, pro-American, anti-Iranian government with an effective and even-handed army and police force in the near or even medium term, then the assertion is frankly ridiculous. The Iraqi "government" is barely functioning. The parliament was not able to meet in December because it could not attain a quorum. Many key Iraqi politicians live most of the time in London, and much of parliament is frequently abroad. Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki does not control large swathes of the country, and could give few orders that had any chance of being obeyed. The US military cannot shore up this government, even with an extra division, because the government is divided against itself. Most of the major parties trying to craft legislation are also linked to militias on the streets who are killing one another. It is over with. Iraq is in for years of heavy political violence of a sort that no foreign military force can hope to stop.
General Shensiki was an optimist. The administration never came clean with the American people as to the real reasons for the invasion. Whether it was to gain control of middle eastern oil or to reduce the production of oil and keep the price up, whatever the administration wanted, it was and is incapable of attaining it because of it's sheer incompetence and criminal cronyism. A million troops wouldn't have made a difference with this administration. And us chumps are the ones who will have to pick up the bill.
Juan Cole: Top Ten Myths about Iraq 2006