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Feb 25, 2003 In the 18th century, English King George III sent troops and ships 3,000 miles to suppress an insurrection occurring in one of his colonies. His defeat led to the rise of the greatest nation in the world--the United States of America. Now, in the 21st century, President George ‘W’ desires to punish a dictator in apparent violation of terms of the cease-fire agreement that ended the Gulf War in 1991. His failure to fall back on his Texas Air National Guard training and act decisively and deliberately against Iraq has contributed to a growing lack of support for his ‘just war.’ Soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen are now languishing under 120-plus degree heat, thousands of miles away from home and losing that combat edge that I relied on when I served my country in several campaigns during my active duty from 1990 to 1995. So, what should President Bush do? What kind of exit strategy should be employed in the event a war cannot be prosecuted in Iraq? How does he withdraw over 150,000 troops and related equipment without repeating the debacle of Somalia in 1994? Operation Enduring Freedom, conducted in Afghanistan following 9/11, was conducted with precision and power. The mission was simply to remove the ruling Taliban and eliminate Al- Quaeda support in that oppressed region. Soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division and 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault) were properly rotated and supported, starkly contrasting Operation Restore Hope. That campaign, conducted in Somalia to ostensibly support UN humanitarian aid efforts, left too many elite soldiers dead and dragged through the streets of Mogadishu, since they weren’t allowed to have the equipment they needed to perform their duties effectively and efficiently. I’m sure Secretary of State Colin Powell, who served as the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under Dubya’s dad during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, can lend pointers on how to perform an effective troop withdrawal. Troop buildups have rarely been thinned out from anything other than a war. However, the warmongering rhetoric is beginning to ring false, and tripe from pundits like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O’Reilly is taking on the consistency of refried beans, bland and repetitive with no real punch. After all, haven’t we tired of the whining from right-wing hawks that we didn’t finish the job in 1991? We had Saddam Hussein cowering in the corner, with the fifth largest army vanquished by the sheer technical and tactical superiority of the US armed forces--why didn’t we reduce Iraq to rubble then? It wasn’t our mission then, and the mission seems to be unclear now. The US-led coalition in 1990 was charged with repulsing Iraq’s invasion into Kuwait. In that specific mission, we were successful. Powell’s Vietnam experience led him to call for such a narrowly-defined mission, including a comprehensive plan of withdrawal. Dubya must rely on those with real combat experience to pull our troops out of the Middle East in a manner that portrays power, poise and deserves praise from the world community. To do otherwise would render the United States a paper tiger, a country with a powerful bark and bellowing breath, but dull claws and emaciated muscle. About the author: Chuck Tyler is a freelance writer and journalist based in South Bend, Indiana. His credits include coverage for the South Bend Tribune (www.SouthBendTribune.com) of a triple homicide trial and a town hall meeting of concerned citizens and local officials for the Herald-Palladium (www.HeraldPalladium.com) following 9/11. Email him at: tyler_1420@yahoo.com ------------ Comment on this column in the forum. ------------ |
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