Losing the War?

This is not a politcal blog or activism website. I don’t have an agenda, but I do have a problem with the way we are running our international affairs. Specifically, I think we are loosing the war in Iraq.

America hasn’t made friends of the Iraqi people.
In the poll, 80 percent of the Iraqis questioned reported a lack of confidence in the Coalition Provisional Authority, and 82 percent said they disapprove of the U.S. and allied militaries in Iraq. (Salt Lake Tribune, May 13)

Bremer, and the Iraqi Governing Council have failed and their jobs will be turned over to the UN if it’s a mission they choose to accept.
“We sit in the council while the country is burning and argue over procedure,” says Sheikh Yawar, a Sunni tribal leader who lived abroad until last year. “We’re like the Byzantines in Constantinople, debating whether angels are male or female with the barbarians at the gate.” Under Mr. Brahimi’s plan for a transitional government, all 25 members of the US-appointed council would be culled in favor of a team of technocrats to be chosen next month by Brahimi’s team and influential Iraqis, with US input. The group would take power in July and shepherd Iraq to elections next January – in which, ideally, they would not participate. (Christian Science Monitor, May 13)

The coalition is a sham and is falling apart.
Spainish Troops Leaving (Yahoo!, April 19)
Poland Pulling Out (Irish Times, April 20)
Honduras Pulls Troops (CNN, April 19)
Nicaragua Done (Reuters, April 20)
Ukraine Pulls Back (MSNBC, April 21)
Dominican Republic Removes Troops (CBS, April 20)

The war is expensive, bloody, and indefinite.
The official, Deputy Defense Secretary Paul D. Wolfowitz, acknowledged that a surge of violence and other problems in Iraq had led to rising costs, with no certainty yet when they would fall. (NY Times, May 13)

The world is less safe than it was before we started, and there are more terrorists now than ever.
The AP-Ipsos poll, released Wednesday at The Associated Press annual meeting, found: Half feel that, in some measure, the terrorists might be winning the war on terrorism. One in five in the poll feels strongly the terrorists are winning while an additional 30 percent say there is at least “a little truth” to that statement.
More than one-third say they have less faith in government’s ability to protect them, and an additional one-fourth say there’s at least some truth to that idea.
Nearly half feel strongly they are more pessimistic about the possibility of there ever being peace in the world while an additional one-fourth say there may be some truth to that. (MSNBC, April 22)

More than 50% of America’s troops are deployed, reservists tours are extended again, and the military is stretched thin.
The US has committed most of its heavy ground forces and deployable aircraft carriers, as well as a large share of its best attack aircraft and air- and sea-lift units. (Washington Post, April 8)
The newly announced troop extensions — which broke the Pentagon’s promise that Iraq tours of duty would be limited to one year — are forcing many to change plans, cancel weddings and delay return to normal life. Meanwhile, the anxiety felt by those at home increases each day. (ABS News, April 23)

America has failed to uncover the weapons that led us into this war.
During the annual Radio and Television Correspondents Dinner this week, Bush presented a slide show of quirky photographs from inside the White House. In one, the president is looking under furniture in the Oval Office. “Those weapons of mass destruction have got to be somewhere,” Bush joked. “Nope, no weapons over there … maybe under here?” (CNN, May 6th)