Retired Generals, Former Congressman Speak Against Iraq Policy
Published in The Daily Reflector on September 6, 2007
Two retired generals and a former congressman called for an orderly withdrawal of troops from Iraq during the trio's tour to discuss U.S. options in that country.
The men's efforts are sponsored by the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit organization. According to the Web site, the center was established in 1980 to provide a vehicle for rigorous, nonpartisan research and analysis on weapons of mass destruction issues. The group's founders held a deep-seated belief that these weapons must be controlled and eventually eliminated.
Retired Brig. Gen. John H. Johns decried President George W. Bush's committing the nation's military in Iraq, saying the president was fulfilling a deep-seated impulse to use American military might to spread democracy.
Now, the situation there is untenable, which mirrors the Vietnam experience, Johns said.
He said he warned policy makers and generals in the early 1960s: "Do not get United States combat forces involved in counterinsurgency ...."
Ratcheting up the number of troops on the ground is futile, he said.
The "surge thing, in my view, is far too little too late," said Johns, who served as a combat arms officer in the Army for more than 26 years, retiring in 1978. He served four years as a deputy assistant secretary of defense before becoming a professor of political science at the National Defense University.
"I'm sorry," he said of the current strategy in Iraq, "but all this is doing is buying time."
U.S. action in Iraq "has produced multiples of new insurgents," said retired Lt. Gen. Robert G. Gard Jr., a Korea and Vietnam war veteran who taught international relations and has lectured and written articles on the topic.
He said the promise of withdrawal after the Iraq government becomes stable is a fantasy, saying about half of the nation's cabinet members have walked off the job.
Gard called the government "a nonfunctioning institution."
Keeping troops in Iraq is "not only likely to be unproductive, it is counterproductive," he said.
Tom Andrews, a former Maine Democratic congressman, said a recent U.S. Government Accounting Office report confirmed the assessment of the Iraqi government as "dysfunctional."
Benchmarks of the nation's progress are getting worse, he said.
For example, Andrews said 10 Iraqi military units were operational in March, but only six are ready today.
"So that, too, is going in the opposite direction," he said.
It is "unconscionable" to allow more troops to be injured and killed in the losing effort, Andrews said, calling the conflict a "civil war."
Gard called for a "coordinated, deliberate but reasonably prompt withdrawal" from Iraq. In 1967-68 in Vietnam, he said, "We didn't know what else to do, so we surged."
Five years later, 34,000 more troops had been killed, Gard said.
Johns said they chose to visit Greenville partly because it's a college town. Also, he said, they wanted to visit the district of U.S Rep. Walter Jones, a Republican who has criticized American policy in Iraq. The congressman has shown "profiles in courage," the general said.
No local public appearances were scheduled for the group, which met with staff from The Daily Reflector.
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