Barack Obama's "Plan for Defeat in Iraq!"

In today's New York Time's (here) Barack Obama enlightens us with an OP - ED piece called "My Plan for Iraq." I suspect that his friends at MoveOn.org & Code Pink took Barack to the wood shed for a spanking after he stated he was going to wait until he met with the general's on the ground before finalizing his plan for Iraq. So today he unveiled his "Plan."

After reading it, I believe it is more of a "Plan for Defeat & Disaster!" I agree that I'm not Harvard educated, but I have fought in three wars starting in Vietnam in 1970 - 71, Desert Storm 1990 -91 and Operation Iraqi Freedom 2005. I think my life experiences have given me some insight into the nature of geo-political conflicts. More importantly, as a student of history, I believe Obama's plan will result in even worse death and destruction then the three million slaughtered in Southeast Asia after the Democrats forced America to cut and run from Vietnam in 1975.

As Obama has pointed out, he has been against the Iraq war from the start. Yet he has continued to vote to fund the war while he has been in the US Senate. Some would say that it is not an example of a principled stand on Obama's part. Now, when it appears that we have turned a major corner in Iraq with the success of the "surge" and we are preparing to make a major reduction of combat troops from Iraq, Obama wants to give the Army a new Iraq mission: "end this war." That should give those Iraqi's who have supported our coalition a really warm and fuzzy feeling about waking up one morning and finding they are alone against Al Qaeda, Syria, and Iran. If you really want to see this region in flames and civil war, Obama's plan is the recipe for just that catastrophe.

Obama shows his lack of military experience when he says he would have all combat brigades out of Iraq in 16 months after becoming president. The fact is combat brigades only make up 1/2 of our troops in Iraq. The rest are made up of training teams and logistical support necessary to assist the Iraqi government and their young military forces. Where are we going to reposition to be available if the Iraqi government needs our help again?

He said he would pursue a new strategy in Afghanistan by inserting two combat brigade (about 10,000 troops) there. Remember, Obama earlier this year said he would cross the border of Afghanistan to attack Al Qaeda in Pakistan. I'm not sure the Pakistan government would be too happy about that happening. The cold hard military facts are that Afghanistan couldn't be controlled by the British Empire or the Soviet Union. The best we can do is fight a counter-insurgency (special operations style) war and buy time for the Afghan government and army to build up and defend themselves. Isn't that how we have been winning in Iraq with the change of tactics called "the surge?"

Regrettably, Obama's OP - ED is terrible short on real solutions or practical ideas. I'm beginning to think that his military adviser Retired General Wesley Clark wrote it for him. Yes, we know that the intelligence for the war was flawed, so was the intel on December 7, 1941, we get it! This is just another example of Barack Obama's naivety and inexperience. The idea that he can just sit down and sing "kumbiya" and governments like Syria and Iran will play nice and open their wallets to rebuild Iraq is just plain gibberish.

We all want the war to end, especially those of us who have fought it and lost friends in the process. But don't snatch defeat from the jaws of victory just because you are beholding to radical groups that opposed this war to get out your vote.

It is obvious that Barack Obama has no national defense expertise nor does he understand what is at stake here for the world and the United States. We can't abandon our allies and we definitely shouldn't put ourselves into a position that might require us to go back into Iraq and pay for the same real-estate twice. Obama would have been far better off waiting until he spoke to the general's on the ground before announcing it is time to quit and retreat.