So we have a grossly underfunded troop base, a cutting of Vets benefits and recruitment way down, causing troops to go over longer and more often than they should.
And yet there is no end in sight. Sounds to me like we'll be seeing a draft real fast. A draft the Right continuously denied would ever be needed, and yet if recruitment falls below reenlistment, or pressure to end the war gains momentum a draft will be necessary.
We were lied to about vets benefits, the reason for war, we were lied to about how long it would last and soon we will be lied to about a draft.
The news for this administration keeps getting worse and all they can do is question Dem patriotism and flatly call Dems. supporters of the terrorists.
Think they'll ever address underfunding and undersupplying troops while Haliburton makes billions?
Think they'll ever come up with a truly good reason why 1/3 of military bases need closed (during a time of war)?
Think they'll ever come up with true reasons why they can't honor Veteran's benefits?
I don't, I think based on their past actions they will continue to question Dem patriotism and flatly call Dems. supporters of the terrorists. And keep "religion and class hatred" on the forefront thinking they'll keep getting elected by them.
I have news, you're closing in on 2,000 US troop deaths, and an admittance of no foreseeable ending, plus all the other things I have above posted....
they better hope the bullying, patriotism quetioning and "religious and class" warfare keeps working.
Quote:
link:http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor..._mi_ea/us_iraq
Rumsfeld: Iraq Insurgency Could Last Years By DOUGLASS K. DANIEL, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 33 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Insurgencies can go on for years, but the violence ravaging Iraq will eventually be quelled by homegrown forces rather than U.S. and other foreign troops, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld says.
The violence could even worsen as Iraqi officials draft a constitution and Iraqi citizens prepare to install a new government by the end of the year, Rumsfeld said in television interviews Sunday.
He and other senior military officials asked Americans to be patient and support their troops as the war progresses.
"It ebbs and flows," Rumsfeld told "Fox News Sunday." "The progress on the political side is so threatening to the insurgents that my guess is it could become more violent between now and the constitution referendum and the election in December."
Deadly attacks are a daily reality in Iraq, where an Associated Press count through Sunday showed 1,736 U.S. troops killed.
"That insurgency could go on for any number of years. Insurgencies tend to go on five, six, eight, 10, 12 years," Rumsfeld said. "Coalition forces, foreign forces are not going to repress that insurgency. We're going to create an environment that the Iraqi people and the Iraqi security forces can win against that insurgency."
The latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll shows public doubts about the war reaching a high point — with more than half saying that invading Iraq was a mistake.
Gen. John Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, appealed for public support of the soldiers and their mission. "We don't need to fight this war looking over our shoulder worrying about the support back home," he said on CNN's "Late Edition."
The Sunday Times of London reported that U.S. officials recently met secretly with Iraqi insurgent commanders north of Baghdad to try to negotiate an end to the bloodshed.
Speaking generally, Rumsfeld told NBC's "Meet the Press" that those kind of meetings "go on all the time" and that Iraqis "will decide what their relationships with various elements of insurgents will be. We facilitate those from time to time."
Abizaid said U.S. and Iraqi officials "are looking for the right people in the Sunni community to talk to ... and clearly we know that the vast majority of the insurgents are from the Sunni Arab community. It makes sense to talk to them."
Echoing Rumsfeld, Abizaid made clear that "we're not going to compromise" with Iraq's most-wanted terrorist, Jordanian-born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.
The contacts, the two said, were intended to make it easier for the Shiite-led government to reach out to minority Sunnis.
The strength of the violent opposition to the U.S.-led coalition since the invasion in March 2003 has raised questions about whether the Bush administration understood such a sustained reaction was possible.
Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record) of Michigan, senior Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said he and other critics of President Bush's Iraq policy are determined to show their support for U.S. troops. At the same time, he said, "we're also determined to be constructive critics of the policies which not only sent them there, as unequipped, and without international support, and without plans for the aftermath."
Before the war, Vice President Dick Cheney predicted that Iraqis freed from Saddam Hussein's rule would greet Americans as liberators. Rumsfeld said Sunday he gave Bush a list of about 15 things "that could go terribly, terribly wrong before the war started."
He said they included Iraq's oil wells being set on fire; mass refugees and relocations; blown-up bridges; and a moat of oil around Baghdad, the capital.
"So a great many of the bad things that could have happened did not happen," Rumsfeld said.
Asked if his list included the possibility of such a strong insurgency, he said: "I don't remember whether that was on there, but certainly it was discussed."
Rumsfeld said Iraq's security forces have gained respect among Iraqis. He suggested insurgents' ability to kill in large numbers did not indicate a decline in public support for efforts by the U.S. and Iraqi governments or that political, economic or security progress has been lacking.
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