U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, (click title to entry - thank you) center, arrives at Camp Ramadi in Iraq to visit troops from the 4th Infantry Brigade, 3rd Infantry Division, 01 Sep 2010
A contingency of top USA military and civilian leadership is in Iraq today to celebate the end of the particiaption of the USA in any combat operations.
The ceremony is important. Make no doubt. Most any military ceremony is an important act. The military ceremonies of the USA mark specific events that carrys sincere brevity to its purpose and power.
Secretary Gates is closing his tenure in civilian leaderhip of our military next year. He has served under two Presidents and stayed to protect this country with any expertise he could render during his time in office. I thank him for that. He is also leaving with sensitivity to that 'balance' of that expertise. I hope his methods of transitioning civilian leadership in the Secretary of Defense Office will be a new and permanent tranistion method to forestall any plans by terrorist groups that plan new attacks within the USA during those post election transitions. It may be a method most nations should examine as a potential to fending off such dangers.
Secretary Gates in his loyalty to his country has openly spoken to the dangers that have opened up to the USA when the Afghan front was abandoned in 2003 to enter a new campaign in Iraq. He openly has stated moving into Iraq had compromised the Afghan front. I thank him for that as well. It is a dialogue that has been missing and much needed both from a military front and civilian understanding of what is important when making this serious decisions within the civilian paradigm.
The Department of Defense should never be a political or economic playground for civilian leadership. The defense of the USA also insures a place for democracy on Earth. The cost of entering Iraq was more than economically devastating to the USA, it threatened its national security. That reality cannot be overlooked today or in history. Such decisions have to be made with brevity and not as an uptick to a Plutocracy that cares little about the citizens of the USA or as a political rant that 'plays well' among the electorate. The decision to move into an Iraq front was devious and simply wrong. It destablized the Afghan front and we are paying for that decision dearly even today.
The deaths and maiming of Iraqi civilians and their outcome was never considered by the previous administration in the decision to move against their disarmed government. There was no post invasion strategy except for the oil fields and today the nation building remains under attack by an insurgency that has yet to be quelled. Perhaps this transition will leave no doubt in the Middle East that the USA is no longer the enemy in Iraq among those that see us as occupiers. Perhaps this transition will mark a change in the Iraq citizenry and their willingness to settle on a government they choose and are willing to support without propagating further violence.
For those in the USA that continue to use this war as a point of political preference and oppose this transition it is easily stated their understanding of sincere civilian leadership is flawed beyond any reasonable definition of it. The USA does not belong in Iraq and we never did. It deflected from our national security and today the Afghan front remains a danger and perhaps more so because of the change in front by the Bush/Cheney lead Plutocracy which used any potential for WMD as a driving force to move into oil rich Iraq.
The political front that desires war at any cost over sound civilian policy for our national defense opposes the very same Muslim faith in the USA. Evidently, it is easier for them to attempt to dominate the Islamic world at any cost even if it means opposing the USA Constitution.
I wish the Iraqi people much success in reclaiming their land and their government. It is even more clear today than it was at the initial invasion that the country has profound divides according to ethnic populations and cultures. The dominate three provinces in Iraq being served by the 50,000 USA military to build stability unique to each of them is a good focus and hopefully will be a successful one. I doubt there will be 'peace' among the provinces soon, but, in time there will be a settling of the economy and the people will make decisions that benefit their security.
