UNT professors comment on President Bush’s Iraq news conference

by John P. Meyer

Dr. Geoffrey Wawro, director of the University of North Texas Military History Center, and Dr. Adrian Lewis, chairman of the UNT Department of History, listened with interest yesterday (July 11) as President Bush held a White House news conference to comment on a report detailing progress on 18 benchmarks set by Congress in relation to the war in Iraq. According to the report, eight points showed "satisfactory progress" while eight others exemplified "unsatisfactory progress." (On the remaining two points, "mixed results" were reported.)

The UNT professors agree on one thing: we (as a military occupying force) appear to be in deep doo-doo.

President Bush's stated policy (which equates to our national policy, since he represents the executive branch of the U.S. government) holds that the current course of action will be maintained at least until September, when he receives a personal report directly from General David Petreaus (commander of U.S. forces in Iraq).

Meanwhile, back in Denton, Dr. Wawro (who holds the roll-right-off-the-tongue instructional title of Major General Olinto Mark Barsanti Professor of Military History) states that President Bush's description of the war as "complex and extremely challenging" is euphemistic language for (in Wawro's words) "an extremely intractable situation... that will require a long-term occupation by American troops to resolve the situation." (Riposte.) Furthermore, Dr. Wawro comments that "our troops are staving off a nation's civil war, and voters and taxpayers no longer want to keep paying for an occupation that has become a one-man show." (Touché.)

Dr. Lewis (long-time military historian and author of The American Culture of War: The History of the U.S. Military Force from World War II to Operation Iraqi Freedom) suggests that the benchmark report demonstrates the lack of a comprehensive strategy for winning the war in Iraq. Much like (he says) the situation we found ourselves in during the Vietnam war - where, he states, "... we never developed a comprehensive strategy to win the war. It seems to me we are doing the same thing in Iraq." Furthermore, says Lewis, "we need to control the entire environment in which the battles take place, and until we can do that we will not succeed." (Aargh.)

Both Wawro and Lewis are making themselves available to answer any questions folks might have about their responses, going so far as to tender up their direct phone lines.

Dr. Geoffrey Wawro: 214-514-7224 (cell)

Dr. Adrian Lewis: 940-565-2288 (office)

Now, that's what I call taking responsibility.

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