A "Colonel" of truth

Ah the truth sometimes arises from strange sources. An internal memo submitted by U.S. Army Colonel Timothy Reese, a senior American military advisor to the Iraqi military's Baghdad Command submitted to General Odierno, the commanding general of American forces in Iraq, says it is time "for the U.S. to declare victory and go home." Of course the usual denials have come forth as in, "the email reflects one person's personal view"... but at the very least, a senior uniformed member of U.S. forces, has offered a view that contrasts from the "official" position of our remaining in Iraq through August, 2010 with 50,000 troops acting as advisors and trainers. Reese opines, "As the old saying goes, 'Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days... and after six years in Iraq, we now smell bad to the Iraqi nose."

To that, we should add, our unnecessary invasion, occupation and destruction of that country has smelled bad from the day we entered the country. A slight rejoinder to the colonel; we were never "guests", just callous invaders and occupiers that imposed ourselves as bullies to satisfy the whims of a clueless president and his bloodthirsty vice president. To them goes the credit for more than 4400 of our military casualties and hundred's of thousands of dead Iraqi's, plus countless others, theirs and ours, maimed in this senseless and unnecessary war.

Now we are expanding our presence in Afghanistan, killing more innocents in that other misadventure. There we believe "victory" must have a political component, saying that war can't be won militarily. This in a country that has never had a strong central government. A tribal society that has resisted all foreign invaders and occupiers until they all, British and Soviet alike withdrew, realizing the futility of continuing in the quagmires that resulted from their presence.

We too will eventually realize, like the colonel in Iraq, that "we smell bad" to the Afghans. Pretty much the same "smell" wafts over the border and pervades into neighboring Pakistan.

Just think how we American's would feel if we had such uninvited "guests" marauding in our presence.

Views expressed on this page are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Campaign for America's Future or Institute for America's Future