Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Where I Stand — Mike O’Callaghan: Some tough love for Iraq

WITH AMERICAN TROOPS still being targeted and killed in Iraq it came time for a leader to admit we are still at war. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld refused to call it guerilla warfare being conducted against our troops. Army Gen. John Abizaid, the new man in charge of our troops in that part of the world, called it as he saw it and said it is guerilla warfare.

Now that we got all of the terminology squared away it's time to do something about the situation. The cost of both lives and dollars is beginning to exceed what some politicians say they are willing to pay. Few, if any, today are willing to say we should cut and run. That song probably isn't far down the music list unless news from Iraq improves. Certainly reports of dead and wounded soldiers almost every day isn't good news. I'm sure that if lives weren't being lost the monetary cost wouldn't be seen as too important. A combined cost of dead, wounded and $3.9 billion a month for restoring order is giving critics some talking points. This doesn't include the dollars demanded for the reconstruction of that country.

As this column pointed out a couple of weeks ago, our troops are being killed and wounded in areas that never felt the sting of military might. It doesn't take a genius to realize that the hard-core supporters of Saddam Hussein live in the areas where many of the attacks on Americans are taking place. None of us can remember shouting crowds of Japanese and Germans threatening our troops and demanding they leave a couple of months after they entered Berlin and Tokyo.

We did everything possible to spare civilians and not destroy Iraq's infrastructure. Not only did we conduct this kind of war, but we also allowed the Republican Guard to collapse and avoid heavy casualties. They took off their uniforms and went home or into hiding with their weapons and explosives. Then they became looters and bombers destroying much of the infrastructure the Americans had allowed to go undamaged. Now they, along with foreign terrorists, are killing soldiers and intimidating other Iraqis to keep them from cooperating with the Americans attempting to restore order in their country.

We are hearing about the necessity to have the United Nations provide troops to relieve thousands of American troops in Iraq. Today there are 160,000 coalition troops there and 147,000 of them are Americans. During the Gulf War our country paid only about 20 percent of the cost because a large amount of the money came from Saudi Arabia and other countries. The Saudis were happy to pay because we saved their hides and oil from a looming Iraqi threat. The same is not true this time.

The arrival of U.N. peacekeeping troops to relieve some of our people is being held up by Germany, France, Russia and even India unless that international organization gives approval. They are still in a snit because we led the invasion of Iraq without U.N. approval. Furthermore, they probably don't see Iraq having a peace to keep and hesitate to send their troops into a combat situation.

What we must realize is that even with U.N. approval, our country will continue to do all of the heavy lifting in that area. Some commentators look back to the Korean War as a big U.N. success. Yes, the U.N. even authorized a ribbon for the military serving in Korea. There were 22 countries listed among the U.N. forces, but the heavy price in blood was paid by the U.S. and Republic of Korea. Not counting the ROK casualties, the number of American troops killed and wounded were more than 10 times the combined numbers suffered by all of the other 20 countries that sent troops to Korea.

There is seldom a single solution for any problem as complex as the one we face in Iraq today. Our only hope is to provide Gen. Abizaid all of the weapons and support needed to clean up the problems we allowed to fester in Saddam's home territory. At the same time all of the aid and reconstruction money should be pumped into sections of Baghdad and other areas where some semblance of peace exists.

None of us have the perfect solution to the problems we face in Iraq. I would start by giving Gen. Abizaid, who is fluent in Arabic, the same support and power we gave to Gen. Douglas MacArthur when he entered Japan in 1945. Until all the killing stops, the White House representative, Ambassador Paul Bremer, would continue directing reconstruction but report to Abizaid. Their roles can then be reversed only after the guerilla activity ceases.

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