Me: Slightly Ahead of the Curve

Well, I wrote this post about Iraq and Afghanistan and helicopters, and then I just read a very informative New York Times article verifying much of what I had said. The article reports that the recent spate of downed helicopters is not coincidence and is the result of new tactics, (which may well be exported to Afghanistan) not new weapons. The insurgents are also planting car bombs nearby to kill Americans who arrive on rescue missions.

There's also this: "The Feb. 7 attack on a Marine CH-46 Sea Knight transport helicopter near Karma, an insurgent stronghold near Falluja, was initially attributed by military officials to mechanical problems. But this week they acknowledged it had been downed by hostile fire, most likely a shoulder-fired missile and heavy-caliber machine-gun fire." So maybe that crash in Afghanistan was enemy fire after all.

What's the moral of the story? The disaster in Iraq can and will get worse, it will undermine our ability to salvage Afghanistan, it will lead to countless more deaths and staying there will not ever, ever lead us to a stronger position in the world. We need to get out of Iraq now, on our own terms. If we choose to stay, we will lose.