Former generals: The surge completely failed

Former Rep. Tom Andrews, D-Maine; retired Lt. Gen. William Odom; and retired Lt. Gen. Robert Gard hosted a conference call to act as a pre-buttal to testimony from Gen. David Petraeus, who will testify in the House and the Senate next week.

The three men, representing the organization “Win without War,” said that the surge was a complete failure and that they seek to combat the conservative message that the surge has worked to create stability in Iraq.

Gen. Odom spoke about Petraeus’ testimony from last year where the commander in Iraq said that there could be no military solution to a political problem and the coalition would only be able to create conditions that might allow for some political development. Odom said that while it is true that the violence dropped in al Anbar province but he did not credit the surge there. He said that Sunnis in that area allied with and were paid to work for the U.S. military in the “Sons of Iraq” program and that they are not loyal to the Iraq government. He spoke about the division between Shiites surrounding the violence created in last week’s fighting in Basra and said that Sadr is the real winner in this situation. “There is no way you can look at this and say that you are better off this year than you were last year,” Odom said.

“The insurgents seem to be able to fight without any U.S. trainers,” Odom said, what is needed is more political development. He said that withdrawal is essential to overcoming the stalemate in Iraq and that either way, Iraq can not be “put back together” without violence.

Gen. Gard said that he is not criticizing Gen. Petraeus and recognizes that he was given a new directive of protecting the population and that he has done a good job in that directive. Gard said that we have not moved to achieve the end of political stability, as outlined by President Bush before the surge. He cited Odierno who said that without political progress the violence cannot be decreased.

Former representative Andrews of Maine said that that the Bush administration is only good at stagecraft as it tries to persuade American tax payers to continue to fund the war. They said that Congress should be investing in Iraq but not in the failed strategy of the surge.

When asked about Afghanistan the generals highlighted a statement made by Admiral Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff when he said “in Afghanistan we do what we can and in Iraq we do what we must,” and Gard called Iraq, “a diversion of our resources to the detriment of our security.” Odom said that it is disturbing that “we have bet the future of NATO” on success in creating a centralized government in Afghanistan.

Another question about a proposed “pause” in examining the conditions on the ground before continuing to withdraw troops, Odom said that whether or not the U.S. stays or goes is not relevant because sectarian tensions have existed and will continue to exist regardless of U.S. presence and that the recent violence surrounding Shiite violence is just an emergence of tensions that will always exist. The generals concluded that the only thing the U.S. has control over is the number of U.S. troops who die in combat in Iraq and that Congress should therefore invest in a plan to withdraw those troops.