Major Combat Operations… Ended?
June 23, 2007On 9 Nov 2004, the SF Chronicle printed a story “U.S. Forces Push into Fallujah”. That article is no longer archived online, but a related article is. [see Chronicle story]
In response, I wrote a letter to the editor.
Recently (17 Jun 2007), the Chronicle printed another story about yet another major U.S. offensive (aka “Surge”), validating the point I made in my 2004 letter. It seems the Bush folks don’t learn from history — not even history that they lived through.
War is still on
Letter printed in SF Chronicle, 9 Nov 2004
Editor — Your news story, “U.S. forces push into Fallujah” (Nov. 8), without intending to, clearly shows the total failure of the Bush administration’s campaign to pacify Iraq by force.
Didn’t President Bush declare, in effect, “mission accomplished” more than a year ago?
Didn’t he say that “major combat operations” had ended?
If this assault on Fallujah isn’t a “major combat operation,” then what is it?
How many more times will U.S. troops have to “push into Fallujah” over the next decade to recapture it from insurgents? When will we acknowledge that our attempt to control Iraq is doomed to the same fate as the Soviet Union’s attempt to control Afghanistan?
What will it take for the American people to realize that they have been led into an endless quagmire by an incompetent group of ideologues who have no clue what to do?
JEFF JOHNSON
