Books by Robert C. Byrd

Robert C. Byrd: Child of the Appalachian Coalfields / Losing America: Confronting A Reckless and Arrogant Presidency

Senate of the Roman Republic /  We Stand Passively Mute

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"The mission of U.S. forces is to kill or capture Muqtada al-Sadr. That is our mission," according to General Sanchez.

Deeper into the Mouth of Hell

We Must Find an Exit from Iraq

By Sen. Robert Byrd 

I have watched with heavy heart and mounting dread as the ever-precarious battle to bring security to post-war Iraq has taken a desperate turn for the worse in recent days and hours. Along with so many Americans, I have been shaken by the hellish carnage in Fallujah and the violent uprisings in Baghdad and   elsewhere. The pictures have been the stuff of nightmares, with bodies charred beyond recognition and dragged through the streets of cheering citizens. And in the face of such daunting images   and ominous developments, I have wondered anew at the President's   stubborn refusal to admit mistakes or express any misgivings   over America's unwarranted intervention in Iraq.

During the past weekend, the death toll   among America's military personnel in Iraq topped 600 -- including   as many as 20 American soldiers killed in one three-day period   of fierce fighting. Many of the dead, most perhaps, were mere youngsters, just starting out on the great adventure of life.   But before they could realize their dreams, they were called   into battle by their Commander in Chief, a battle that we now know was predicated on faulty intelligence and wildly exaggerated   claims of looming danger.

As I watch events unfold in Iraq, I cannot   help but be reminded of another battle at another place and another   time that hurtled more than 600 soldiers into the maws of death   because of a foolish decision on the part of their commander. The occasion was the Battle of Balaclava on October 25, 1864,   during the Crimean War, a battle that was immortalized by Alfred,   Lord Tennyson, in his poem, "The Charge of the Light Brigade."

Tennyson got it right -- someone had   blundered. It is time we faced up to the fact that this President   and his administration blundered as well when they took the nation   into war with Iraq without compelling reason, without broad international   or even regional support, and without a plan for dealing with   the enormous post-war security and reconstruction challenges posed by Iraq. And it is our soldiers, our own 600 and more,   who are paying the price for that blunder.

In the run up to the war, the President   and his advisers assured the American people that we would be   greeted as liberators in Iraq. For a brief moment, that outcome   seemed possible. One year ago this week, on April 9, 2003, the mood in many corners of the nation was euphoric as Americans   witnessed the fall of Baghdad and the jubilant toppling of a   massive statue of Saddam Hussein. Less than four weeks later, the President jetted out to an aircraft carrier parked off the   coast of California to cockily declare to the world the end of   major combat operations in Iraq.

For those with tunnel vision, the view   from Iraq looked rosy then -- Baghdad had fallen, Saddam Hussein   was on the run, and U.S. military deaths had been kept to a relatively   modest number, a total of 138 from the beginning of combat operations   through May 1.

But the war in Iraq was not destined   to follow the script of some idealized cowboy movie of President   Bush's youth, where the good guys ride off into a rose-tinted   sunset, all strife settled and all wrongdoing avenged. The war in Iraq is real, and as any soldier can tell you, reality is messy and bloody and scary. Nobody rides off into the sunset   for fear that the setting sun will blind them to the presence   of the enemies around them.

And so the fighting continues in Iraq, long past the end of major combat operations, and the casualties   have continued to mount. As of today, more than 600 military   personnel have been killed in Iraq and more than 3,000 wounded.

Now, after a year of continued strife   in Iraq, comes word that the commander of forces in the region   is seeking options to increase the number of U.S. troops on the   ground if necessary. Surely I am not the only one who hears echoes   of Vietnam in this development. Surely, the Administration recognizes that increasing the U.S. troop presence in Iraq will only suck   us deeper into the maelstrom of violence that has become the   hallmark of that unfortunate country. Starkly put, at this juncture, more U.S. forces in Iraq equates more U.S. targets in Iraq.

Again, Tennyson's words bespeak a cautionary tale for the present:

Like Tennyson's Light Brigade, American's military personnel have proved their mettle in Iraq. In the face   of a relentless and seemingly ubiquitous insurgency, they have   performed with courage and resolve. They have followed the orders of their Commander in Chief, regardless of the cost. But surely some must wonder why it is American forces that are still shouldering   the vast majority of the burden in Iraq, one year after the liberation of the country. Where are the Iraqis? What has happened to our much vaunted plans to train and equip the Iraqi police and the Iraqi military to relieve the burden on U.S. military personnel?   Could it be that our expectations exceeded our ability to develop these forces? Could it be that, once again, the United States underestimated the difficulty of winning the peace in Iraq?

Since this war began, America has poured   $121 billion into Iraq for the military and for reconstruction.   But this money cannot buy security. It cannot buy peace. $121   billion later, and just 2,324 of the 78,224 Iraqi police are "fully qualified," according to the Pentagon. Nearly   60,000 of those same police officers have had no formal training   -- none! It is no wonder that security has proved so elusive.   The time has come for a new approach in Iraq.

The harsh reality is this: one year after the fall of Baghdad, the United States should not be casting   about for a formula to bring additional U.S. troops to Iraq. We should instead be working toward an exit strategy. The fact   that the President has alienated friend and foe alike by his arrogance in "going it alone" in Iraq and has made the task of internationalizing post-war Iraq an enormously difficult   burden should not deter our resolve.

Pouring more U.S. troops into Iraq is not the path to extricate ourselves from that country. We need the support and the endorsement of both the United Nations and   Iraq's neighbors to truly internationalize the Iraq occupation  and take U.S. soldiers out of the cross-hairs of angry Iraqis.

And from the flood of disturbing dispatches from Iraq, it is clear that many Iraqis, both Sunni and Shiite, are seething under the yoke of the American occupation. The recent   violent uprising by followers of a radical Shiite cleric is by far the most troubling development in Iraq in months and could signal America's worst nightmare -- a civil war in Iraq that pits moderate Shiites against radical Shiites. Layered over the persistent insurgency being waged by disgruntled Iraqi Sunnis and radical Islamic operatives, a Shiite civil war could be the   event that topples Iraq from instability into utter chaos.

As worrisome as these developments are in and of themselves, the fact that they are occurring as the United States hurtles toward a June 30 deadline to turn Iraq over to an interim Iraqi government -- a government that has yet to be identified, established, or vetted -- adds an element of desperation to the situation.

Where should we look for leadership? To this Congress? To this Senate? This Senate, the foundation   of the Republic, has been unwilling to take a hard look at the   chaos in Iraq. Senators have once again been cowed into silence and support, not because the policy is right, but because the blood of our soldiers and thousands of innocents is on our hands.   Questions that ought to be stated loudly in this chamber are instead whispered in the halls. Those few Senators with the courage   to stand up and speak out are challenged as unpatriotic and charged with sowing seeds of terrorism. It has been suggested that any   who dare to question the President are no better than the terrorists themselves. Such are the suggestions of those who would rather not face the truth.

This Republic was founded in part because of the arrogance of a king who expected his subjects to do as   they were told, without question, without hesitation. Our forefathers   overthrew that tyrant and adopted a system of government where dissent is not only important, but it is also mandatory. Questioning   flawed leadership is a requirement of this government. Failing to question, failing to speak out, is failing the legacy of the   Founding Fathers.

When speaking of Iraq, the President maintains that his resolve is firm, and indeed the stakes for him are enormous. But the stakes are also enormous for the men and women who are serving in Iraq, and who are waiting and praying for the day that they will be able to return home to their families, their ranks painfully diminished but their mission fulfilled   with honor and dignity. The President sent these men and women   into Iraq, and it is his responsibility to develop a strategy   to extricate them from that troubled country before their losses become intolerable.

It is staggeringly clear that the Administration did not understand the consequences of invading Iraq a year ago,   and it is staggeringly clear that the Administration has no effective   plan to cope with the aftermath of the war and the functional collapse of Iraq. It is time -- past time -- for the President to remedy that omission and to level with the American people about the magnitude of mistakes made and lessons learned. America needs a roadmap out of Iraq, one that is orderly and astute, else more of our men and women in uniform will follow the fate of Tennyson's doomed Light Brigade.

Source: http://www.counterpunch.org/byrd04072004.html /

posted  12 April 2004

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updated 4 November 2007 / update 23 May 2008