Gov. Bill Richardson is Out to Lunch

The Geek is a slow man to anger, but the governor of his home state has frankly rankled his butt. The Geek is particularly rankled because the Governor's latest off-the-tracks position on Iraq and the "war on terrorism" distracts the Geek from pursuing a subject of far greater personal interest, and, he opines, far greater importance to understanding what is happening in the Mideast.

In case you have missed it, Governor Bill wants the US to get out of Iraq ASAP and redeploy our troops to Afghanistan with the goal of squashing al Qaeda like a grape. He recommends replacing the increasingly effective US combat forces by an all Muslim force drawn from Egypt, Syria, Jordan and Tunisia among others.

Now I realize that peyote grows abundantly in the southern desert areas of our state and that pot grows aplenty wherever there is water enough, but, at least years ago when I first met the ambitious young politico, Richardson, he didn't strike me as the type to indulge. Now I've got to wonder.

The Gov is fond of bringing up his experience with negotiating with the North Koreans regarding their A-bomb research and development activities back during the Clinton years and using this as the spring board for favoring diplomacy in the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan over the use of military force. He darn near breaks his arm patting himself on the back for the alleged success of his diplomatic efforts with the North Koreans.

Get a grip, Bill!

Your diplomacy took place in a context. Since you are either forgetful or don't wish to bother your auditors with the facts, here they are. North Korea was faced by three negotiating parties with a significant nuclear capacity: the Peoples' Republic of China, Russia, and the US. The other two involved states, South Korea and Japan, have a nearly off-the-shelf capacity to go nuclear within months. Then there was the simple fact that North Korea was both broke and filled with starving peasants. The North Koreans needed beaucoup assistance, beaucoup fast.

In short, Gov, your brilliant diplomacy was made possible by the rampart of overwhelming force backing you and the desperate straits of your North Korean interlocutor--not your smooth words and polished manner.

Now back to the main event.

The Geek agrees, as he has stated ad nauseum in this blog, that invading Iraq was a world class blunder. But, now that the vile deed has been done, to back out before there is a reasonable simulacrum of an effective government and security force in Iraq, before there is a better state of peace, we have to stay. We have to stay and have our people die in order that the blunder we committed might be made right.

To do otherwise, as the Geek has written, will assure that there is no way that the Islamist terrorists, be they affiliated with al Qaeda or not, can be defeated.

Right now, as Major General Mixon, commander of the Multi-National Division North, stated last month, we need "more boots on the ground."

The same is true in Afghanistan. More boots on the ground are necessary if Taliban and al Qaeda fighters are to be beaten into a reasonably submissive posture. The Brits have taken notice of this and are contemplating sending more troops to their area of operations in the south of that miserable geographic expression. (The Geek cannot in good conscience say either "nation" or "country." Afghanistan is too much of a shambles for either word to apply.)

Now with respect to your harebrained scheme of an all-Muslim peace imposition force. That notion (The Geek won't dignify it with the word, "idea.") boggles the mind.

Not only do Tunisia, Egypt and Jordan have sufficient problems with their own Islamists, Syria (along with Iran) is the equivalent of the cliched fox asked to guard the hen house. Beyond those minor considerations, none of the Islamic countries you have mentioned in any of your policy pronouncements possess the doctrine, force structures, command and control mechanisms or experience relevant to the demands of counterinsurgency.

While the results might not be quite as disastrous as those associated with all-African multi-national peace imposition and keeping efforts in collapsed states in Africa, the Geek would not be willing to bet the ranch on the proposition.

Governor Richardson, however, is willing to bet our nation's future as well as that of a goodly chunk of the world on the idea that multi-party war in a collapsed state will both bring about a better state of peace for Iraq and win the "war on terrorism."

With thinking like that, the Geek is surprised that New Mexico has survived the Governor's years in office. (OOPS! Come to think of it, those years ain't over yet. The clock ticks on.)