Inheriting Bush's Mess

So far, the 2008 election has focused on growing challenges at home, including the fallout from the sub-prime mortgage crisis, escalating gas prices, and health care for millions of uninsured. But another leading policy challenge for the next administration is cleaning up the mess from the Bush administration's national security policies and making a clean break from the past seven years. Speaking at the Center for American Progress yesterday, Sen. Chuck Hagel (R-NE) offered a vision for moving forward: "Military power alone will not achieve the great objectives that are going to be required to meet these new 21st century challenges; it's going to require a 21st century framework of thinking, of policymaking, of structure." Hagel suggested that "reintroducing America to the world will be as important as any one thing this next President has to do, because if we lose the next generation of the world, the problems will then be so immense that we will never be able to get out from under them." Hagel's view is rare among conservatives, most of whom continue to march in lockstep with President Bush's disastrous national security policies. Acknowledging that Iraq continues to be mired in violence, Hagel stressed once again that "there is no military solution in Iraq, [and] the military guys understand that more than anyone, because we put all the burden on them. All the burden on them."

NO END IN SIGHT IN IRAQ: American troops continued to bear that burden this week as they pushed further into Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood. The intense house-to-house combat, with Americans essentially fighting on behalf of one Shi'a political party against another, is more proof of the failure of the Bush administration's policy of military occupation. Humanitarian groups have reported that "entire sections of Sadr City have been largely abandoned by civilians fleeing" the fighting. Additionally, more residents were warned to leave their houses, signaling another new push deeper into the neighborhood. U.S. forces have also begun to see an uptick in violence in Iraq's Anbar province, which threatens the fragile gains of the tribal "awakening" strategy which has been a centerpiece of the surge. Despite attempts by conservative war supporters to present every piece of Iraqi government legislation as a major breakthrough, there is no indication yet that Iraqis are prepared to make the compromises necessary to establish a sustainable political order.

STRAIN ON THE MILITARY: Illustrating the massive burden that the continuing wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have put on U.S. military readiness, Gen. Richard A. Cody stated in congressional testimony last month that "operational requirements and lack of training time between deployments have affected the Army's preparedness for the full spectrum of military missions." Cody testified that "the current demand for our forces in Iraq and Afghanistan exceeds the sustainable supply and limits our ability to provide ready forces for other contingencies." On Thursday, USA Today reported that, according to Pentagon records, "more than 43,000 U.S. troops listed as medically unfit for combat in the weeks before their scheduled deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan since 2003 were sent anyway." According to statistics based on health assessment forms filled out by medical personnel at military installations, "the number of troops who[m] doctors found non-deployable but who were still sent to Iraq or Afghanistan fluctuated from 10,854 in 2003, down to 5,397 in 2005, and back up to 9,140 in 2007." The war continues to put a strain on U.S. taxpayers. This week, Congress is considering a bill worth $195 billion to fund military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan into next spring. This legislation could also include a new "G.I. bill modernization bill," written by Hagel and Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA), which would dramatically increase benefits given to veterans to pay for college. President Bush has thus far declined to support the G.I. bill legislation, and the Pentagon claims it would "harm" retention rates.