"Mission Accomplished"

Much ado was made over the now infamous “Mission Accomplished” sign in 2003. However, the ballyhoo about the sign has continually missed the point. From the military’s standpoint, they had accomplished what they were sent to do. They were right. They were right then. They are still right in retrospect. What the problem is in regards to that sign and the notion that the mission was accomplished is that the role of the military has not been adequately discussed.

Prior to the invasion in 2003 the military role was in support of the diplomatic and political mission. Although I believe that the Bush Administration had no actual intent to do anything less than invade and that the diplomatic and political efforts were always for show, it does not change the fact that the military role was to be in support.

The invasion, ouster, and eventual removal of Saddam Hussein was the only portion of this entire long national nightmare where the military was supposed to be in the primary role. Once Saddam was removed and captured, the role of the military was to move back into support of the diplomatic and political efforts. The Bush Administrations absolute inability to handle this situation has been documented ad nauseam elsewhere so I will merely mention it here. But, suffice it so say, it is not the fault or role of the military in this matter.

The military has had its own well-documented problems in Iraq, but again I do not believe that is the issue here. What is the issue is that they have been stuck in an awful situation as a police force without an actual mission to accomplish since 2003. Death tolls have mounted due to the failure of the diplomatic and political process. These deaths are not a military failure, they are the result of an utter lack of vision and foresight and the ignoring of the diplomatic and political reality they were stuck in the middle of.

And yet, nothing seems to be changing; after an election where the US public voted for change, after the Iraq Study Group Report, after so many other things I don’t want to list them all, the president has evidently come to the conclusion that he was right all along and is going to just keep plowing away.

Meanwhile, the government in place in Iraq is pretty much made up of anti-American segments. The media in Iraq is hardly free and open and reports come in that it is being squashed and subverted (the lesson being that when you censor something you give it additional power when it goes to Syria or Egypt and broadcasts from there). A surge of troops appears to be coming. The Iraq government bungled the hanging of Saddam in such a way that it appears to be our fault when it clearly is not (they wanted to show they are independent of us so they handled it themselves and I won’t accept or point fingers on that one).

The POTUS is now engaged in Orwellian double speak; to paraphrase, “Americans want victory, and victory means winning” is all we get. He. Doesn't. Get. It. At. All. The troops coming home is not a military failure.

This is not much ado about nothing.