Dirge for the 'Surge'

Antiwar backlash building – in the US military

By Justin Raimondo

"Just when it seemed that the neocons would get away with their echo chamber tactic of talking up the "success" of the "surge" – and even getting a few Democrats to go along with their contention that we can't even think about pulling out now – the War Party was hit with three major blows that have them reeling.

First and foremost is the suggestion by Marine Gen. Peter Pace, the retiring head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that we begin downsizing our troop commitment to Iraq – before the over-extension of the U.S. military snaps American readiness and fatally saps our resources.......

Pace represents the institutional voice and spirit of the American military, which has been fighting a rearguard action against the monomania of this administration. Pace and others have been futilely calling for some consideration of the U.S. military's ability to carry out its existing commitments in view of the strain placed on its resources by the Iraq and Afghan wars. That's why Pace is on the way out......

The neocons were openly disdainful of the military's institutional interests and didn't care about the effectiveness of our forces: their obsession with the Middle East overrode everything else. Their ideological bias in favor of war – as well as their tendency to put Israeli interests on a par with those of the U.S. – militated against any such considerations. When the neocons hijacked American foreign policy and began to use the armed forces as their personal plaything, they ran up against the natural opposition of career military personnel......"