Too Much Stuff: How Our Profligate Consumerism Might Keep Us in Iraq

[marmar]

via AlterNet:



Too Much Stuff: How Our Profligate Consumerism Might Keep Us in Iraq

By Tom Engelhardt, Tomdispatch.com. Posted November 21, 2008.

Wherever we go, our "stuff" goes with us -- in such large quantities that removing it could prove more daunting than invading in the first place.



It's the ultimate argument, the final bastion against withdrawal, and over these last years, the Bush administration has made sure it would have plenty of heft. Ironically, its strength lies in the fact that it has nothing to do with the vicissitudes of Iraqi politics, the relative power of Shiites or Sunnis, the influence of Iran, or even the riptides of war. It really doesn't matter what Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki or oppositional cleric Muqtada al-Sadr think about it. In fact, it's an argument that has nothing to do with Iraq and everything to do with us, with the American way of war (and life), which makes it almost unassailable.

And this week Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mike Mullen -- the man President-elect Obama plans to call into the Oval Office as soon as he arrives -- wheeled it into place and launched it like a missile aimed at the heart of Obama's 16-month withdrawal plan for U.S. combat troops in Iraq. It may not sound like much, but believe me, it is. The Chairman simply said, "We have 150,000 troops in Iraq right now. We have lots of bases. We have an awful lot of equipment that's there. And so we would have to look at all of that tied to, obviously, the conditions that are there, literally the security conditions… Clearly, we'd want to be able to do it safely." Getting it all out safely, he estimated, would take at least "two to three years."

For those who needed further clarification, the Wall Street Journal's Yochi J. Dreazen spelled it out: "In recent interviews, two high-ranking officers stated flatly that it would be logistically impossible to dismantle dozens of large U.S. bases there and withdraw the 150,000 troops now in Iraq so quickly. The officers said it would take close to three years for a full withdrawal and could take longer if the fighting resumed as American forces left the country."

As for the Obama plan, if the military top brass have anything to say about it, sayonara. It's "physically impossible," says "a top officer involved in briefing the President-elect on U.S. operations in Iraq," according to Time Magazine. The Washington Post reports that, should Obama continue to push for his two brigades a month draw-down, a civilian-military "conflict is inevitable," and might, as the Nation's Robert Dreyfuss suggests, even lead to an Obama "showdown" with the military high command in his first weeks in office. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/story/107992/too_much_stuff%3A_how_our_profligate_consumerism_might_keep_us_in_iraq/

[Somawas]

1. Then maybe we'll have to leave the gun and the cannolis.

[dkf]

2. Sorry but I don't believe these guys.

They just want to make excuses and BS us into staying.

[IndyOp]

3. I get the idea that it will take a long time, but no job is "impossible" if you put

enough personnel into the job.

The issue here, IMO, is that there aren't enough people to assign to the job if the military is to keep soldiers in Afghanistan AND the other 800+ military bases around the world. My suggestion: Recognize that it is time to draw down personnel and equipment from around the world and put unemployed people to work packing up bases in safe locations and put all newly available military to work pulling out of Iraq - they are no longer needed in Korea, Poland, UK, Vietnam, Japan, and so forth...

Also: LEAVE all non-weapons systems in Iraq -- anything that Iraq could be used solely for civilian needs -- office equipment, medical equipment, food service equipment, vehicles... the Iraqi government gets to keep.

Finally: The ONLY reason that anyone would say it will be impossible to draw out U.S. equipment within 18 months is that the Bushies really have been using Iraq to create the ULTIMATE military base system from which they can control the Mideast, Asia, Africa, and Europe and this will REQUIRE that the truth be told to the American people -- point blank: We are in the fucking recession/depression because the previous administration was trying to force our nation into a role as Emperial Power from which we could not back away without destroying our economy. So, now, we must chose the morally correct action of backing away and there is no way to do this without leaving behind our ILLUSION that the U.S. can control world events.

[leftchick]

4. I say leave most of it to the Iraqis

after the rape, pillage and destruction to their country it is the least we could do.

<snip>

In other words, abroad, we weren't the Spartans, we were the Athenians on steroids. And then, of course, there was the "equipment" that Mullen referred to, the most expensive and extensive collection you could find. As the Washington Times's Arnaud de Borchgrave wrote back in October 2007: "Watching them drive by at 30 miles per hour, would take 75 days. Bumper-to-bumper, they would stretch from New York City to Denver. That's how U.S. Air Force logistical expert Lenny Richoux described the number of vehicles that would have to be shipped back from Iraq when the current deployment is over. These include, among others, 10,000 flatbed trucks, 1,000 tanks and 20,000 Humvees." And don't forget "the 300,000 'heavy' items that would have to be shipped back, such as ice-cream machines that churn out different flavors upon request at a dozen bases…"

As Dr. Seuss might have put it: and that is not all, oh no, that is not all. In July 2007, for instance, the Associated Press's Charles Hanley described U.S. bases holding "more than the thousands of tanks, other armored vehicles, artillery pieces and Humvees assigned to combat units. They're also home to airfields laden with high-tech gear, complexes of offices filled with computers, furniture and air conditioners, systems of generators and water plants, PXs full of merchandise, gyms packed with equipment, big prefab latrines and ranks of small portable toilets, even Burger Kings and Subway sandwich shops."

And it doesn't stop there. In mid-2007, when the issue of our "stuff" first became part of the withdrawal news, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates pointed out: "You're talking about not just U.S. soldiers, but millions of tons of contractor equipment that belongs to the United States government, and a variety of other things… This is a massive logistical undertaking whenever it takes place." So, one might ask, what about those many tens of thousands of private contractors in Iraq and all their materiel? Presumably, some of them, too, would have to withdraw, mainly through the bottleneck of Kuwait and its overburdened ports. This would, as the military now portrays it, be an American Dunkirk stretching on for years.