100 monkeys typing.

Arming the Opposition.

Dear Frank Luntz,

Stop calling it a war. The war ended on May 2, 2003 with the declaration of mission accomplished. We won the war, remember?

Continued use of the "Global War on Terrorism" or "Struggle Against Shit We Have Manufactured Evidence On" isn't working and people are no longer buying it. We're in the reconstruction phase. Reconstruction isn't something you win or lose, you are either managing it effectively or you aren't. Pulling out isn't cutting and running from a war, it's project cancellation due to lack of interest, scope creep or mismangement. The continued use of military to contain an insurgency is a result of poor planning and management. A failure to create and adhere to a critical path.

Managing a project of this scale requires (drumbeat) a timeline. An actual plan for the reconstruction of Iraq into a soverign, self governing nation. Planning for success and cessation of a project is not, aiding and abetting the opposition. Failing to establish a timeline is. Lack of appropriate managment opens the entire project up to graft, corruption, extended contracts with no accountability, overruns and mismanagment as indicated by the overwhelming finacial losses seen to date.

Tying the rebuilding of Iraq (or, Global Struggle Over Foreign Held Oil) to the War on Terrorism artificially inflates the public's expectations and unfortunately buries the other "rogue nations' " importance as we struggle in the quagmire of our own creation. Bogging an overtasked military down in a mismanaged post-war cluster fuck is not a success no matter what instrument you use to measure it and as far as the GWOT is concerned, as long as reconstruction is being conducted as a war, the real battle that needs our focus is being lost elsewhere.

Please take this under advisement for the next series of talking points for God's Own Party.

regards,

an assload of monkeys

Posted by kerry at August 26, 2005 08:32 AM