2 month appropriations can't work. Iraq and Afghanistan operations have been borrowing from the U.S. Air Force and Navy budgets for months now to fund Army and Marine operations. Many non-combat operation expenditures have been getting deferred to support operation expenses world wide.
A 2 month "allowance" only creates more problems, and will probably effect programs to improve and up armor vehicles in the war zone next. TUSK kits for Abrams tanks for urban environments, Falcon III AN/VRC-110's to replace older SINCGARS radios in theater. They will have to fund food, fuel, payroll, bonuses, and bullets as the priority --- which means equipment cuts.
Larger issue about the "Will of the People" to pull out.
So, will America's new motto be "When the going gets tough, the U.S. gets going?" Is Rome falling? Are we as a nation a paper tiger now?
Will of the people? Please! Going INTO this war after a quick victory in Afghanistan and still seething over 9/11 was POPULAR with the American John Q. Public. Look at what happened to the Dixie chicks as an example of how the Will of the People reacted to anti-war talk back then.
Since we were the one's who went in and broke the country, we have no obligation to fix it? "Sorry 'bout the mess and all the dead Iraqis. Good luck to you. Don't forget to write." ??
Now, the War was won, but the Peace and Nation Building was screwed up by the numbers from the Administration, the State Department, the Intelligence Community, the Pentagon, and last, but not least CONGRESS. Plenty of blame to go around Disneyland on the Potomac.
* Not enough boots on the ground. No where near enough.
* Firing 400,000 Iraqi soldiers, sailors, and airmen who were courted to sit on the sidelines during the invasion - who were led to believe they'd work for the new management - who knew where much of the ordnance and equipment was stashed around the country - many who were little more than thugs.
Many of which military planners had originally counted on to secure the country (and thus allow us to invade with lower numbers).
All cut loose to instead join the insurgency, the militias, raid ord sites, make IED's and VBIED's, or turn to organized crime in hijacking convoys and kidnapping people for ransom. (May be the single biggest blunder of whole fiasco).
* The Jiffy Pop Constitution and weak central Iraqi government.
Congress most of all, but everyone pressuring a new Iraq to come up with a microwave constitution and quick elections. Took the U.S.ofA. THIRTEEN YEARS to come up with a Constitution, and we weren't ready to kill each other in age old blood feuds. To think that a divided Iraqi people in a middle east culture could come up with a good constitution and government in less than a year was foolish.
So, we got a government of compromise and with no central power or authority. We'd have been better off with a constitutional monarchy with the old King or a interim dictatorship-- but American prejudices toward "democracy" and "freedom" would not allow any thought of a regionally traditional government that had a chance at providing a strong central government.
* Thinking Jordan, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, or anyone else in the neighborhood has ANY interest in a stable Iraq with western ties.
They have their own sectarian differences, they don't want American bases next door, they don't want Iraqi oil on the market, they don't want to close their borders to allowing the more fanatic of their citizens from going to Iraq to get killed fighting Americans, and they earn money in American contracts in support of the war in some cases (Kuwait, UAE, Qatar).
People looking to Iraq's neighbors to help the situation are fools.
* Wrong equipment for wrong kind of war, and not enough on hand since the draw down from the 1990's.
There are others, many others, but those are some of the big ones.
Yes: Over 3,350 American troops KIA. Another 800+ contractors killed. Another 25,000+ wounded. All since March 2003.
Some figures put it at 3,000 to 4,000 Iraqis are killed every month. The United States created that situation. I can already hear responses with shades of "their lives are not worth nearly as much". (How Christian of those that feel that way. I'll stay agnostic.) Guess I have a different perspective by actually spending a tour in Iraq trying to help and interacting with Iraqis nearly every day, and seeing them as people.
5,000 American service veterans commit suicide every year. Where's the public concern for them?
"Will of the People". I might buy into that if a higher percentage of the people actually got out and voted, and if they were not so much a mass, uninformed, reactionary mob most of the time. They were "for" the war in the beginning. Now it's en vogue to be "against" the war. Oh lookit!, we're with the popular kids! Maybe it's time to go all Starship Troopers and only give citizenship and the vote to those that serve?
Going in was a mistake. The conduct of the war from the government leadership was abysmal. Mistakes were legion. But to do a 180 turn and pull out leaving the mess we've created is probably the worst of many bad choices we could make.
There is no longer a "Win" situation. There will be no "victory" in Iraq. Too many mistakes have been made along the way. We've come now to a point at choosing among various "bad" solutions. Leaving them to their own devices is one of the more bad choices in the long term from a geopolitical and regionally strategic perspective. If the region implodes after we pull out: can western economies survive $150 per barrel sweet crude?
My fear: To save some lives now (and political expediency) will cost many more American servicemen and women their lives later.
