There is more confirmation this morning that George W. Bush has gone bonkers when it comes to Iraq. The Associated Press is reporting this morning that President Bush is focusing on achieving victory in Iraq by increasing the training of Iraqi soldiers and police, promoting “our ongoing efforts to transfer more responsibility to the Iraqi security forces,” as Bush says it.
Has Bush not paid attention to what these so called “security forces” have been doing? American-trained Iraqis have been caught time and time again participating in attacks against other Iraqis and against American soldiers.
Take, for example, the incident just a few days ago in which unidentified Iraqi Shiite “militiamen” grabbed a group of Iraqi Sunni civilians, doused them in kerosene and then lit them on fire, burning them to death. Iraqi “security forces” were there, and they did nothing to stop the incident. They just watched. Later in the day, when Shiites rampaged through the same neighborhood, killing 19 Sunnis, including children, the same “security forces” once again refused to intervene.
There was a time when rebuilding the Iraqi police and military was a plausible part of a plan for salvaging the disaster of the Iraq War. That time is long gone. It has becoming quite clear that large numbers of the Iraqis that American soldiers have trained are involved in the attacks against Iraqi civilians and the growing civil war there.
It’s simple math, really. The more of these “security forces” American soldiers have trained and armed, the faster the violence in Iraq has increased. It makes no sense to keep adding numbers into this formula of death. It is insane for President Bush to insist that the United States continue to follow the same course that has led to the current reign of terror in the streets of Iraq.
