Odom To Bush: "Seize The Moment!" And Sign the Iraq War Supplemental Spending Bill

April 28 (EIRNS)--Retired Lt. Gen. William Odom, Director of the National Security Agency under President Reagan, declared today, that President Bush "seems to have gone AWOL" on the Iraq war. "He neither acts nor talks as though he is in charge. Rather, he engages in tit-for-tat games." Odom delivered the Democratic radio address at the request of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, repeating his call, which he has been making for several years, for rapid U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. "The challenge we face today," he said, "is not how to win in Iraq; it is how to recover from a strategic mistake: invading Iraq in the first place." The war, he said, could never serve American interests, but it has served Iran's interests by revenging Saddam Hussein's invasion of Iran, and Al Qaeda's interests, by "providing a much better training ground than did Afghanistan, allowing it to build its ranks far above the levels and competence that otherwise would have been possible."

"We cannot 'win' a war that serves our enemies' interests and not our own. Thus, continuing to pursue the illusion of victory in Iraq makes no sense," Odom continued. Nothing less than a radical change in strategy "will limit the death and destruction that the invasion of Iraq has unleashed." No such change in strategy can be devised until the United States begins withdrawing its troops from Iraq, Odom said. Only then will countries in Europe and other major powers, including India, China, Japan and Russia consider supporting us. Such a withdrawal "will also shock and change attitudes in Iran, Syria and other countries on Iraq's borders, making them far more likely to take seriously new U.S. approaches, not just in Iraq, but to restoring regional stability and heading off spreading chaos that our war has caused."

Odom concludes by hoping that Bush "seizes this moment for a basic change in course" and signs the Iraq war supplemental spending bill that Congress has sent him. "I will respect him greatly for such a rare act of courage, and so too, I suspect, will most Americans."