"Iraq is in shambles"

Army ex-captains want US out of Iraq or a new military draft
Published: Tuesday October 16, 2007

Twelve former US army captains Tuesday urged Washington to either abandon Iraq or dramatically increase its military presence there by reinstating mandatory military service.

The article, published in the Washington Post, also criticized higher-ranking officers for believing they can still hold Iraq together with the force available.

"There is one way we might be able to succeed in Iraq," wrote the ex-captains, all of whom saw service in Iraq between 2003 and 2006.

"To continue an operation of this intensity and duration, we would have to abandon our volunteer military for compulsory service. Short of that, our best option is to leave Iraq immediately.

"A scaled withdrawal will not prevent a civil war, and it will spend more blood and treasure on a losing proposition," they wrote.

The Iraq war "is as undermanned and under-resourced as it was from the start," the authors wrote, stating bluntly that "Iraq is in shambles."

The authors say they have "seen the corruption and the sectarian division. We understand what it's like to be stretched too thin. And we know when it's time to get out."

The captains describe widespread corruption in the Iraqi government, a country where the infrastructure is in "deplorable condition."

Iraq's oil industry "still fails to produce the revenue that Pentagon war planners hoped would pay for Iraq's reconstruction," they wrote.

Even with the 'surge' of US forces this year there are not enough troops in Iraq. Temporary regional success "may brief well on PowerPoint presentations," but in practice "they just push insurgents to another spot on the map."

Millions of Iraqis "correctly recognize these actions for what they are and vote with their feet -- moving within Iraq or leaving the country entirely.

"Still, our colonels and generals keep holding on to flawed concepts."

After widespread anger over the draft during the Vietnam war, the United States went to an all-volunteer military force in 1973. Currently there is little support to return to compulsory military service.

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