Iraq

"We've lost 126 soldiers since we've been here. One hundred twenty-six of my soldiers made the ultimate sacrifice," said Maj. Gen. Rick Lynch, commander of Multinational Division Central, in a Jan. 23 briefing with military analysts. "And I'll be [darned] if I'm going to advocate giving up ground that they died for. We are just not going to do that. The place will go back in a heartbeat."

"If you've got an area that you've taken away and you walk away from it, 96 hours later the enemy is back--and he's intimidating the population (and) he's killing innocent people," said Lynch. "So we just have to manage this transition very diligently."

Translation: We need to police this population forever to save face.

General officers have a fiduciary duty to give their civilian commanders honest feedback, vigorous feedback if necessary. Our military leadership is failing this country.

Fall some forces back to a couple of remote bases to discourage the Chinese and Russians from making an oil-grab, and just send everyone else back home. The Iraqis do not want freedom and would not recognize it if it stared them in the face. Water in Iraq needs to find its own level. It won’t be pretty, but these people have been given their chance.

Thoughts and prayers with the forces walking the streets and their families. The ones making the sacrifices in this whole mess.