Bush's Iraq Invasion: The "Greatest Strategic Disaster" in U.S. History

It is pretty hard to argue with this -- well, at least it is for most of us:

The invasion of Iraq was the “greatest strategic disaster in United States history,” a retired Army general said yesterday, strengthening an effort in Congress to force an American withdrawal beginning next year. Retired Army Lt. Gen. William Odom, a Vietnam veteran, said the invasion of Iraq alienated America's Middle East allies, making it harder to prosecute a war against terrorists.

I'm certain that General Odom will immediately be branded a traitor by the extreme right for his comments, especially given that Professor Juan Cole has a link to Odom's comments at his site.

Another thing that makes it harder to prosecute a war against terrorists is the fact that the Army is experiencing its worst recruiting slump in decades, and the Iraq Debacle is undoubtedly a major cause of that:

The Army has not published official figures yet, but it apparently finished the 12-month counting period that ends Friday with about 73,000 recruits. Its goal was 80,000. A gap of 7,000 enlistees would be the largest — in absolute number as well as in percentage terms — since 1979, according to Army records.

The Army National Guard and the Army Reserve, which are smaller than the regular Army, had even worse results.

The active-duty Army had not missed its target since 1999, when it was 6,290 recruits short; in 1998 it fell short by 801, and in 1995 it was off by 33. Prior to that the last shortfall was in 1979 when the Army missed by 17,054 during a period when the Army was much bigger and its recruiting goals were double today's.

Meanwhile, George "Orwell" Bush had this to say about the Iraq situation in his Saturday morning address:

I'm encouraged by the increasing size and capability of the Iraqi security forces. Today they have more than 100 battalions operating throughout the country, and our commanders report that the Iraqi forces are serving with increasing effectiveness.

By using the phrase "increasing capability," Bush of course meant that the capability was decreasing:

One of the few measures the Pentagon has offered the public to judge the capabilities of Iraqi security forces has been the number of battalions that can go into combat with insurgents without the help of the U.S. military.

During congressional testimony on Thursday, Gen. George Casey, top U.S. commander in Iraq, and Gen. John Abizaid, top U.S. commander in the Middle East, said the number of such battalions had dropped since July to one from three, out of the roughly 100 Iraqi battalions.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm getting pretty tired of Bush and his "everything is going great" rhetoric about the Iraq Debacle. I guess he knows that his political base loves to hear lies like that, but come on.


UPDATE: Iraq's Kurdish President has called on the country's Shiite Prime Minister to step down:

President Jalal Talabani has accused the Shiite-led United Iraqi Alliance, which holds the majority in parliament, of monopolizing power in the government and refusing to move ahead on a key issue for Kurds, the resettlement of Kurds in the northern city of Kirkuk.

"The time has come for the United Iraqi Alliance and the Kurdistan coalition to study Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari's stepping aside from his post," said Azad Jundiyani, a spokesman for Talabani's Patriotic Union of Kurdistan. "This is for the benefit of the political process."

I'm sure this matter will resolve itself peacefully.