US Officers: Iraq War WEAKENED Military

Senior Military Leaders Agree with Ron Paul.
Global Interventions WEAKEN Our National Security.
The Iraq invasion helped Iran and China at America's expense.

New Study Proves Ron Paul Correct Again:
Quote from "US military overtaxed by wars: Poll of officers," The Economic Times, 9 March 2008 :

Some 60 per cent of more than 3,400 active and retired high-level command officers polled said they believe the US military is weaker than five years ago, compared with only a quarter who said it was stronger and 15 per cent who felt the military was unchanged.

Asked if the war in Iraq has broken the military, 42 per cent said yes and 56 per cent said no. But 88 per cent said they agreed that the war has stretched the US military "dangerously thin."

And despite speculation that the US would be willing to engage militarily with Iran, 80 per cent said they believed that it was somewhat unreasonable or very unreasonable to expect the US military to wage another war somewhere in the world successfully at this point....

But many 37 per cent said that US rival Iran has gained the greatest strategic advantage from the Iraq war, compared with 19 percent naming the United States as the biggest beneficiary and 22 percent naming China.

Captain Ron Paul's prudent strategy of nonintervention (the smart way to be globally active) will make America strong again.

George Washington Endorses Ron Paul?

“Just come home.”--Ron Paul, Iowa Republican Debate, 8/5/07

“If he does that, he will be the greatest man in the world.”--British King George III, 1783, speaking of George Washington when the king heard that General Washington would return to his homelife rather than stay in political power after his military victory

Relinquishing power to return home is what makes America great and different in the world.

• George Washington was our Cincinnatus, a reference to the Roman republican leader who rose to fight when necessary and then returned home rather than seize power and make himself a dictator.
• The Cincinnatus tradition is a central theme of American history. Americans named a major city after the idea that we as American minutemen are a nation of Cincinnati (the plural of Cincinnatus).
• Leaving is also the key component to our Western cowboy heroes. The film is not over until the hero rides off into the sunset.
• General Dwight D. Eisenhower initially favored the Cold War Marshall Plan and NATO alliance as the means to allow US troop withdrawals from Europe. Similarly, President Eisenhower tried both strategic nuclear weapons and CIA actions because these new methods promised to enable troop reductions. Eisenhower tried to be like George Washington and Ron Paul and just come home but Eisenhower’s attempt to replace one kind of intervention with other interventions ultimately bogged us down with more of everything for half a century.

Keep your word.

Honor your promises to the American people.

Iraq Timeline of Withdrawal Promises:

• George W. Bush in 2000 promised America no nation-building crusades.
• President Bush’s initial, 2002-2003 official Iraq policy is to just come home as soon as possible.
• Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld predicted in February 2003, "It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months" (BBC News World Edition, "Rumsfeld foresees swift Iraq war," 2/7/03).
• The 2003 pro-Bush, pro-war punditry ridiculed a long-term stay in Iraq as a Democratic-Clinton-left idea, "the very premise of an extended "occupation" is antithetical to President Bush's policy of liberation" (Jed Babbin, National Review Online (NRO), March 6, 2003).
• Bush declared "Mission accomplished!" for Iraq on May 2, 2003.
• We could have toppled Saddam Hussein, checked for WMDs, setup a provisional government, and just come home in 90 days in mid-2003, which would have avoided the extra, endless nation-building debacle, avoided the Abu Ghraib prison torture disgrace (US opened the prison in August 2003), and avoided about 4,000 American dead.
• Vice President Dick Cheney on May 30, 2005 declared the Iraqi insurgency to be in its "last throes."
• Lieutenant General David Petraeus' spokesman stated on July 29, 2005 that Petraeus "has been saying for a long time now that there's been tremendous progress in the Iraqi security forces" ("tremendous" Iraqi progress is supposed to allow "tremendous" US withdrawal).
• A British memo leaked in July 2005 stated that US officials wanted "a relatively bold reduction in force numbers."
• Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and General George W. Casey said in mid-2005 that the US could begin withdrawal in mid-2006 and finish complete withdrawal from Iraq by mid-2007.
• Rumsfeld urged troop withdrawals in a November 6, 2006 memo, 2 days before his resignation.
• The British withdrew from Basra city last year in 2007 and left it in a condition that is about the same as it would have been if they had withdrawn 5 years ago in 2003.

"You put your troops in, you pull your troops out."-- US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, 2005, the year he suggested withdrawing from Iraq in 2006

We have done our job.

It is time to honor American traditions and just come home.

John Wayne ("the Duke") walks off into the sunset in the John Ford Americana masterpiece The Searchers (spoiler ending):

How To Withdraw from Iraq Safely: Mahan Endorses Ron Paul?

"Retreat Hell! We're just attacking in another direction."-- Major General Oliver P. Smith, USMC, Korea, December 1950

A smart hawk wants to bring troops home safely and wisely as part of a carefully planned grand strategy to strengthen US national security.

Ron Paul’s “immediate” withdrawal is safe and steady with a glidepath to a soft landing which then allows us to strike an even stronger force posture.

Ron Paul will be inaugurated in early 2009, almost a year in the future. The common estimate for withdrawal is 1-2 brigades per month. Withdrawal might be complete by 2010, 3 years after the “surge” was supposed to fix everything in 3 months, 7 years after the re-invasion of 2003, and 20 years after the Iraq war began in 1990.

If we haven’t fixed Iraq after 20 years of military intervention, it probably wasn’t fixable in the first place.

How will President Ron Paul withdraw?

President Ron Paul gives the order and the military carries out the order. Do not insult our professional military by suggesting that the president has to micromanage how they do their job:

• The military already should have withdrawal plans on the shelf and ready to go. After all, what would happen if a hot war started in Korea tomorrow? It is the military’s job to have contingency plans. That is why units have planning staffs. If they do not have plans ready, courts martial are in order.
• The military has standard operating procedures for logistical movements such as a withdrawal. The formula is the Time-Phased Forces-Deployment List (TPFDL), nicknamed "tip-fiddle" or "tip-fid." Punch in the specifications and tip-fid produces spreadsheets of everything involved for smooth execution.
• If you believe that American troops are dedicated and professional, you should not worry about “how” the withdrawal would occur (as if the army had never left anywhere before).

What would happen if tens of thousands of US troops suddenly withdrew from the rest of the world?

They already have, and you probably never noticed:

• After the fall of the Soviet Union, something in the neighborhood of a quarter-million US troops left Europe. The sky did not fall.
• We closed major bases in Asia-Pacific (the Philippines). The sky did not fall.
• The Department of Defense had a half-million fewer people 10 years after the Soviet Union collapsed. The sky did not fall.
• During the 2003+ Iraq war, Bush ordered thousands more troops to leave Europe. The sky did not fall. (Unfortunately, this smart move is being reversed.)

19 hijackers perpetrated 9/11 DESPITE the 1.4 million member Department of Defense (DoD). Taxing Americans for 2 million DoD personnel would not have prevented 9/11.

There are only about 140 first-generation, hardcore al Qaeda people left in the Pakistan area, plus a somewhat larger number of second-generation, pre-9/11 people. Now if only we could stop MAKING third-generation terrorists by trying to nation-build the world at gunpoint. Increasing the US military from 1.4 to 1.5 million is irrelevant because anti-terrorism is asymmetric and unconventional, not meant for standard military units.

The glaring waste of continued Iraq deployment is evident in today's 3/3/08 military report from northern Iraq covering 12 million people in an area the size of Georgia:

"[The 1st Armored Division] Task Force Iron has been focused on three lines of operation: security, governance and economics."--Deputy Commander Brigadier General Tony Thomas, Multinational Division-North and the 1st Armored Division, Operating Base (COB) Speicher just outside of Tikrit, covering provinces of Nineveh, Kirkuk, Salahuddin, Diyala and the three provinces of the Kurdish Regional Government of Dohuk, Erbil and Sulimaniyah

• Why is an armored division responsible for the economy? There is a reason that WWII General Eisenhower did not hurl thousands of economists onto Normandy Beach on D-Day, and likewise leaders should not hurl combat soldiers at economic problems. Even Pakistani dictator Musharraf is removing military officers from their poor management of civilian functions that hobbles the Pakistani economy.
• A US general in charge of Iraqi governance a half-decade after the takeover is an odd lesson in “democracy.”
• A US armored division is not for anti-terrorism, not for governance, and not for economics.
• The misuse of our troops is causing morale, retention, and recruitment problems. We are losing high-quality people who leave the service. Others suffer PTSD or commit suicide. These policies weaken our national security for when we truly need an armored division.

America needs to get its priorities straight with a sound military strategy:

• Use intelligence and special units to fight terrorists.
• Keep conventional forces trained and ready to meet conventional threats.
• Keep an unbeatable military.
• America does not need a massive army. The Soviets had a large army and lost the Cold War. Occupying Asia is not America’s destiny.
• Admiral Alfred Thayer Mahan was an American officer who first led America to be a world-class naval power by theorizing that he who controls the seas controls the world. America can be the world’s most powerful nation simply by controlling the seas.
• The US spends as much on its military as the rest of the world combined. The US could cut its spending in half and still be the world’s most powerful nation.

Work smarter, not harder.

The Iraq withdrawal will be part of a global realignment that will make America stronger and more secure.

Captain Ron Paul’s “withdrawal” is simply advancing America to a stronger position.

Clinton-Bush Surrender America to Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan

"Doesn’t it seem awfully strange that the Iraqi government we support is an ally of the Iranians, who are our declared enemies? Are we not now supporting the Iranians by propping up their allies in Iraq?"-- Ron Paul, Congressional questioning of Iraq commander General David Petraeus and US ambassador Ryan Crocker before the House Armed Services Committee, 4/9/08

It is time to stop surrendering our sovereignty and letting foreigners control our foreign policy.

• Clinton-Bush let Saddam Hussein dictate our foreign policy by jumping every time Saddam yanked our chain on inspections, rushing US troops to the Gulf and then watching Saddam back down for a while before starting the cycle again.
• Clinton-Bush let Iran dictate our foreign policy by using American troops to eliminate Iran's #1 enemy (Saddam) and because "our" anti-Saddam Shiite Iraqi exile, Ahmed Chalabi, who pushed Clinton-Bush to invade Iraq, is rumored to be an Iranian agent.
• Bush let Afghanistan and Europe dictate our foreign policy because our NATO allies refuse to send their soldiers to Afghanistan, or they send them only for safe areas with restrictions not to fight. Canada is threatening to withdraw its forces. We are sending 3,200 of our elite, amphibious-expert Marines to landlocked Afghanistan as an emergency stopgap, further worsening our troop overstretch from Iraq (the total 29,000 US troops in Afghanistan is about the number of the EXTRA troops for the Iraqi "surge" which brought the Iraq total to about 160,000).
• Bush let Iraq dictate our foreign policy by declaring that we would stay in Iraq as long as Iraq wants us there—as long as IRAQ wants, rather than what AMERICA wants or what is good for America ("We’re going to stay in Iraq to get the job done as long as the government wants us there,"--Bush, 11/30/06)--thus handing the Iraqis control over our military. The Shiite-dominated Iraqi government under Prime Minister Ibrahim Jaafari intentionally sabotaged Iraqi security progress to trick us into staying longer and rival Iraqi factions tricked us into using American firepower against their enemies. That might be good for the Shiites but not so good for the American soldiers killed while serving Islamic fundamentalists' interests.
• Bush let Osama bin Laden dictate our foreign policy by keeping our troops in Iraq because Osama bin Laden said Iraq was a major battleground. Bush said we should listen to Osama bin Laden.

Stop letting Clinton, Bush, McCain, and Obama take their marching orders from al Qaeda, Taliban, Baathists, and Madhists.

Reclaim our sovereignty.

Captain Ron Paul will do what is in America’s national interests.

Texas Soldiers Praise Ron Paul's Iraq Withdrawal Plan

Texas Soldiers at Fort Hood Praise Ron Paul's Iraq Withdrawal Plan.