How Long How Many
Posted on March 27, 2003 Posted by John Scalzi 1 Comment
Ooooh, I like the comments feature. It’s so immediate feedback-rific!
From the comments in “What You Don’t Want to Hear,” this comment:
“Your post begs the following questions:
“If our war planners underestimated Iraqi resistance, have they also been overconfident about how easy it will be to occupy Iraq after the war?
“How many American troops will have to remain in Iraq to keep the peace, and how safe will they be?
“I’ve been more worried about that than the actual war.”
Both of these are excellent questions, and quite obviously, the best answer I can give is that I have absolutely no idea to both. I think it’s well possible that our military may have indeed initially underestimated what will be required after the hostilities cease, but unless the people in charge of the military are learning-impared (which I don’t suspect), they’re revising their initial estimates and that right quick. Our military is many things, but stupid is not one of them.
We have an obligation to rebuild Iraq, so we shouldn’t be in such a rush to leave, but at the same time I don’t think he need to be lingering on for years and years, because I think the longer we stay, the more resentful Iraqis are going to be; it appears a lot of them are already resentful as it is. Some people might wish for this to be the beginning of some American empire, but I’m not one of them, since if you haven’t noticed, all empires end pretty badly.
I’m not in a position in one way or another to guess on timetables and numbers, in terms of how much time we should be there and how many soldiers should remain, since I’m just some schmoe in Ohio. But “As little time and as few soldiers as possible” always sounds good to me. We help them rebuild, we help them get a working government they’re happy with, and then we say bye-bye. You don’t build allies and functional governments by hanging around longer than necessary.
LOL! I am not sure I was asking if you had the answers to those questions, just that your essay leads to them. I guess we need to ask our government for the answers, eh?
But thanks for your opinion anyhow. :-)
And “schmoes from Ohio” certainly write many things I am interested in reading.