On Jan. 10, President Bush unveiled a new plan for the war in Iraq, in which an additional 21,000 troops will be sent to the war-torn nation. The plan also calls for another $10 billion for reconstruction projects.
In all, the plan raises several important questions. First, from where are all these new troops coming? The American military is already stretched too thin. Members of the National Guard cannot respond to crises at home, like what happened when Hurricane Katrina struck. Regularly enlisted serivcemen and women cannot be in two places at once.
Any increase in troops raises fears of a draft. There would be consequences of compulsory military service in such an unpopular war, including a reluctance to join the military in future generations as was seen after Vietnam.
In 2006 alone, 34,000 Iraqis died as a result of the war, as The Washington Post reported yesterday. In the conflict overall, 3,000 American troops have been killed. Clearly the current strategy just isn't working. Will these additional troops actually help the situation, or will they merely fan the burning fire of civil war that ravages the country?
Ultimately, is this a war that the United States should even be fighting at all? Sectarian violence continues (some have said the country is in a civil war), unemployment remains high and basic infrastructure still lays in disrepair.
Instead of addressing these questions, the Bush administration continues its headstrong, stubborn approach. By refusing to consider the concerns of the Democratic Congress and the American people, the president is only harming the Iraqi people and the American troops he sends to fight an unwinnable war.
