It's going to be easy to second-guess General David "FOX News" Petreaus' wish to have a "pause" in troop drawdowns.
Why?
It enables the GOP to run the fall National Election like a referendum on troop drawdowns, as best as one can see it right now. In other words, it possibly adds to the ability of the GOP to run yet another National Security election, in which we have to choose between "defeat" and "victory" at the polls.
Given how much Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld have destroyed all trust in their governance, there is no reason to provide the benefit of the doubt on this, even though there would normally be plenty. Frankly, the best way to withdraw troops would be under a promise of their continuance, just so that it wasn't clear to those fighting them what exactly was happening. In the current environment of broken trust, that's just not a possible manoeuvre, sadly.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Wartime Battlefield Politics
