The Iraq Study Group Report

Christ! When are we getting out of Iraq? How many people have to die before we realize that our objectives can't be achieved by keeping more Americans around and getting them slaughtered?

I just don't understand what everyone is thinking. The Iraq Study Group talks about how we need to help the Iraqi government and train the Iraqi army, but neither even exists in any meaningful sense. Oh sure, there is a group which we call the government of Iraq and a guy the President can meet with called the Prime Minister of Iraq, and even a bunch of troops we can train called the Iraqi army. But, is a government really a government if it can't enforce some rule of law over any significant part of the country it represents? Is the Iraqi Army really a national army, a unifying force, if different troops in that army have different loyalties? Is a nation really a nation if people don't even identify with it?

I just can't help but feel the report is something for politicians to say they tried before, inevitably, we have to pull out of Iraq. Because I just don't see how engaging with an ineffective government to train a divided army to keep together a country whose residents think of themselves as members of an ethnic group rather than citizens of said country makes any sense at all. I especially don't see why it's worth another 1000 or 2000 lives, which is approximately the difference in casualties between starting to get out now and staying another year like the ISG wants to do.


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