Former Top British General: ‘There Is No Way We Are Going To Win The War’
While the USS Chafee is shelling the Somali coast, reports of more civilian deaths at the hands of NATO forces in Afghanistan are surfacing, and US Marine Major General Richard Huck has testified that all his superiors, including Gen. George W. Casey Jr. knew about the massacre in Haditha within hours of it happening - General Sir Michael Rose, the UK’s former Army Commander, has called for the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, stating that he believes that there is no way the war can be won…
“There is no way we are going to win the war and (we should) withdraw and accept defeat because we are going to lose on a more important level if we don’t,” he said.
Though the coalition could not simply “cut and run,” Rose said announcing a withdrawal date would help to dampen down the violence between Sunni, Shia and Kurdish factions.
“Give them a date and it is amazing how people and political parties will stop fighting each other and start working towards a peaceful transfer of power,” he said.
Rose was speaking at the annual Hay Festival of Literature and the Arts in Hay-on-Wye, on the Welsh border with England.
The retired general who has written a book on the American War of Independence, made comparisons with the 1775-1783 conflict between Britain and the Thirteen Colonies.
He said: “How was it a small and extremely determined body of insurgents, thieves and deserters could inflict such a strategic and potentially disastrous defeat on the most powerful nation in the world?
“The answer will be familiar to anybody who is looking at what is happening in Iraq today.”
Yesterday saw the deaths of 114 Iraqis, 3 GI’s, with some 87 Iraqis wounded besides. As it was for US forces, last month was also extremely costly for Iraqis (more so than their occupiers, of course). Texas’ Star-Telegram has more.
G8 Protest Turns Violent, Again
Leave it to a handful of extremists to tarnish the largely peaceful protest being held at the anti-globalization summit in Rostock, Germany. Because as we’re all aware, lighting cars on fire and peeling up paving stones to hurl at the police is a sure fire way to get things accomplished.
Want to bookmark or share this entry?
This entry was posted on Saturday, June 2nd, 2007 at 10:44 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
June 2nd, 2007 at 7:31 pm
Men and nations coming to terms with telling the world that there never was a war. There was always a pretext for the aggressive and illegal pursuit of national interests. Immoral? Debatable. Illegal? Absolutely. Lets be clear. A war has a goal: sovereignty; land; freedom; genocide; whatever.
This is about tipping the power and critical mass of influence in the middle east; the problem is, when do you know you’re done? When loss and cost become so unbearable for those at home, then you hope that you’ve made enough headway to control the assets you went after. Or maybe it’s simply it’s when the average joe in Kandahar tells you that he, “feels liberated” it’s time to come home. But somehow I doubt it.
June 2nd, 2007 at 9:31 pm
Does anyone ever “win a war”? There is no prize at the end. It seems to be only about losing the least- people, equipment, money, integrity, respect, connections, trade deals….There are no winners in war.
June 2nd, 2007 at 11:05 pm
Not only do we never “win a war”, but the wars going on today are not traditional types of wars. With the incidences of things like suicide bombings and warfare that target civilians rather than soldiers becoming the warfare of choice, the prospect of “winning a war” has become even more unrealistic.
June 3rd, 2007 at 6:02 am
Well I guess it depends on your psychological state. If you a megalomaniac i’d say you do win wars, because if you conquer an entire country then to you, and possibly the nationalistic underlings feel you accomplished the destruction of an entire country.
Not a worthy goal certainly, but people “win” wars in their own mind, whether or not the stated goal was worth the bloodshed and horror.
June 3rd, 2007 at 9:50 am
I think Haliburton will be the only winner……..