More Troops to Iraq

War would end if the dead could return. -Stanley Baldwin, statesman (1867-1947)

According to an AP report, President Bush said in a Washington Post interview for December 2006, he will send more troops to Iraq.

This action would be something to laugh at except it is fraught with peril. President Bush's past rodomontade has him in a situation where he is desperate. Superpowers always try to dragoon their opponents. Superpowers are often envied and feared, but seldom loved.

The possessor of power has never been humbled until their power has been taken away. The United States has not been humbled by a few men with simple weapons, the United States has been humiliated. War has too many unseen consequences, which is why it should be avoided. Sending more troops to Iraq is a gamble that has too poor odds.

The policy of sending more troops to try an salvage a bad policy reflects on the mind of the crowd. The United States crowd sees a bad situation in Iraq, but they cannot imagine themselves being defeated, even if their fight is unjust. Former President Bush said when he kicked Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait, "This will exorcise the ghost of Vietnam". Pride, a deadly sin, will cause the American crowd to sink further into a morass, a morass that will lead to more desperation, death, debt, and destruction. The American crowd is afraid to have to live with the shame of another Vietnam.

We have what is called a voluntary military. This means the people voluntarily join, but then they are highly paid, so we have a mercenary army. They will soon stop fighting if the risk reward ratio has too much risk. Thousands of foreign nationals are promised expedited hearings to U. S. Citizenship if they join the United States Army. Still the dangers in Iraq a sergeant faces making $50,000 per year, will allow him to make four times that as a private security guard in Iraq. The free market will tell the Army personnel their risks are not being rewarded. So even with a voluntary army, the frontline troops will be the first ones who see the futility of an unnecessary war, and they will start to rebel. Their morale will plummet, and the psychopaths at home will have no gladiators to cheer for.

Update, 5/1/2010. The frontline troops have not revolted because their pay and benefits, the new GI Bill, have all improved. Risk and rewards.

Bilbo Baggins