by James Glaser
April 25, 2006

Sometimes George Bush tells us that there are over 100,000 trained Iraqi troops, and sometimes we hear that there isn't even one stand-alone Iraqi unit. General Peter Pace is now claiming the number of trained Iraqis is at 65,000, but in all reality it doesn't matter what number they give us.

The United States has some place between 130,000 and 160,000 of the finest troops in the world in Iraq right now, and they have not been able to stop the insurgency. If fact, there are more attacks every year on our troops and the Iraqi troops we are training.

George Bush keeps saying when the Iraqi troops stand up, our troops can stand down, but if the combined might of the US and Iraqi troops can't do the job, how will we ever be able to pull our troops out?

We now know our troops can't stand alone and defeat the enemy in Iraq. (They have been trying for over three years) What makes George Bush or anyone else think the Iraqis are going to do a better job than the United States Army, Marine Corps, Navy, and Air Force?

Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Richard Lugar said this after coming back from a trip to Iraq, "The idea that we will be in just as long as we need to and not a day more—we've got to get over that rhetoric. It is rubbish! We're going to be there a long time."

GlobalSecurity.org tells us, "As of mid-2005, the U.S. military had 106 forward operating bases in Iraq, including what the Pentagon calls 14 'enduring' bases." "Enduring," is the new Pentagon spin word for "permanent".

We are building multi-billion dollar bases in Iraq, for the long haul. Some bases cover 15 square miles. Many of these bases have swimming pools, gymnasiums, and have restaurants like Burger King, Pizza Hut, and Subway.

Let's "get real" with the American people. "Real" is my spin word for honest. George Bush has us in a fix. We can't train enough Iraqi troops to take over, heck we can't even control the place with our troops. We are going to lose this war (or we have lost it already) because Iraq is not going to become any sort of government we would recognize as a democracy. Iraq is going to become some sort of Islamic State. The one thing George Bush did not want.

We are going to spend hundreds of billions more because we are staying there. Every day we will lose more troops to death and maiming wounds. Iraq is not going to all of a sudden turn into a fine example of democracy in the Middle East. We will be lucky if it stays one country. George Bush blew it.... we blew it, and we should be honest enough with ourselves to admit it.

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