A Failure of Leadership and Definition In Iraq
This post has ben hacked. Hopefully it retains the spirit of the original.
The recent reporting of U.S. troops attacking Iraqi civilians in the form of men women and children is highly disturbing. It also reflects an overwhelming failure of leadership in the overall military in terms of the ability to control and discipline troops and whether a clear purpose and sense of mission has been given to the troops.
First of all many of the reports of the various incidents have been calling the mutilations, killing, and rapes of children, men , and women “revenge killings”. If the soldiers honestly believe that they are committing theses crimes because of revenge, there is an obvious failure of definition of the war and honestly leads me personally to question, does anyone know why we are there? We have our soldiers pulling civilians off the street and killing them because they believe that the people we are supposed to be fighting for have done something to their fellow troops. We have individuals from all over Africa including the countries that are supposedly our friends Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and the rest of North Africa probably with the exception of Kuwait sending troops to fight a Holy War against the United States. As we watch Bush literally holding hands with Saudi leaders, Saudi residents are sending their children to fight a Holy War against the United States and this is the type of schizophrenia that is leading to some of the crimes being committed by the troops.
I am not prepared to say that the troops committing these crimes are just plain psycho or crazy are even exceptions to the rules. I believe that some of these individuals are undisciplined individuals who first of all view the war as the Bush personal war and believe that when things are done to their fellow troops that they have the right and the duty to seek revenge by any means necessary by creating their own personal wars. This says to me as an American citizen that the troops don’t understand what the war is about and why we are fighting it. This says that the troops at this point are not fighting an insurgency they are fighting the Iraqi people all of them. The question is what is the United States to do when this occurs? Is there anything that can be done? Personally I believe that Iraq needs to be turned over to a north African regional commission of nations and they need to make the hard and fast decisions on what will happen to this nation that has become the battleground for a holy war in which U.S. troops are the fall guys for an unthought out and unjustified war in which a defined mission was a lie and the result of greed for gain. In the end someone needs to explain to President Bush that his goal of taking over oil fields in Iraq may never be realized and that our troops need to be brought back home. At this point my personal opinion is that the only reason the troops should be over their now is to stabilize a nation we destabilized. If it can not be stabilized Iraq needs to be handed over to the nations in the region and let those countries withdraw their holy fighters because this will never end. There have been chants of PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST for centuries now. I can not understand why the United States is now drawn into a fight with multi generational fighters.
Finally, if we are over there somebody has to lead these very young troops. Daily they must be told something to justify their presence. Daily they must be told even though the battles are in the streets they are not street fighter but soldiers. Daily they must be told that their responsibilities are to maintain the safety of citizens even though it is not quite clear who’s an Iraqi, or not and finally someone has to take precautions that the soldiers are not kidnapped and mutilated that they travel in large groups and do have weapons to defend themselves.
The following articles discuss the issue further.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4017375.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/30/AR2006063000495.html?nav=hcmodule
The recent reporting of U.S. troops attacking Iraqi civilians in the form of men women and children is highly disturbing. It also reflects an overwhelming failure of leadership in the overall military in terms of the ability to control and discipline troops and whether a clear purpose and sense of mission has been given to the troops.
First of all many of the reports of the various incidents have been calling the mutilations, killing, and rapes of children, men , and women “revenge killings”. If the soldiers honestly believe that they are committing theses crimes because of revenge, there is an obvious failure of definition of the war and honestly leads me personally to question, does anyone know why we are there? We have our soldiers pulling civilians off the street and killing them because they believe that the people we are supposed to be fighting for have done something to their fellow troops. We have individuals from all over Africa including the countries that are supposedly our friends Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt, and the rest of North Africa probably with the exception of Kuwait sending troops to fight a Holy War against the United States. As we watch Bush literally holding hands with Saudi leaders, Saudi residents are sending their children to fight a Holy War against the United States and this is the type of schizophrenia that is leading to some of the crimes being committed by the troops.
I am not prepared to say that the troops committing these crimes are just plain psycho or crazy are even exceptions to the rules. I believe that some of these individuals are undisciplined individuals who first of all view the war as the Bush personal war and believe that when things are done to their fellow troops that they have the right and the duty to seek revenge by any means necessary by creating their own personal wars. This says to me as an American citizen that the troops don’t understand what the war is about and why we are fighting it. This says that the troops at this point are not fighting an insurgency they are fighting the Iraqi people all of them. The question is what is the United States to do when this occurs? Is there anything that can be done? Personally I believe that Iraq needs to be turned over to a north African regional commission of nations and they need to make the hard and fast decisions on what will happen to this nation that has become the battleground for a holy war in which U.S. troops are the fall guys for an unthought out and unjustified war in which a defined mission was a lie and the result of greed for gain. In the end someone needs to explain to President Bush that his goal of taking over oil fields in Iraq may never be realized and that our troops need to be brought back home. At this point my personal opinion is that the only reason the troops should be over their now is to stabilize a nation we destabilized. If it can not be stabilized Iraq needs to be handed over to the nations in the region and let those countries withdraw their holy fighters because this will never end. There have been chants of PEACE IN THE MIDDLE EAST for centuries now. I can not understand why the United States is now drawn into a fight with multi generational fighters.
Finally, if we are over there somebody has to lead these very young troops. Daily they must be told something to justify their presence. Daily they must be told even though the battles are in the streets they are not street fighter but soldiers. Daily they must be told that their responsibilities are to maintain the safety of citizens even though it is not quite clear who’s an Iraqi, or not and finally someone has to take precautions that the soldiers are not kidnapped and mutilated that they travel in large groups and do have weapons to defend themselves.
The following articles discuss the issue further.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4017375.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/30/AR2006063000495.html?nav=hcmodule
posted by blackhippychick @ 11:22 AM
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