FROM THE WASHINGTON POST

By 12 former Army captains
Tuesday, October 16, 2007; 12:00 AM

Today marks five years since the authorization of military force in Iraq, setting Operation Iraqi Freedom in motion. Five years on, the Iraq war is as undermanned and under-resourced as it was from the start. And, five years on, Iraq is in shambles.

As Army captains who served in Baghdad and beyond, we've 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.

What does Iraq look like on the ground? It's certainly far from being a modern, self-sustaining country. Many roads, bridges, schools and hospitals are in deplorable condition. Fewer people have access to drinking water or sewage systems than before the war. And Baghdad is averaging less than eight hours of electricity a day.

Iraq's institutional infrastructure, too, is sorely wanting. Even if the Iraqis wanted to work together and accept the national identity foisted upon them in 1920s, the ministries do not have enough trained administrators or technicians to coordinate themselves. At the local level, most communities are still controlled by the same autocratic sheiks that ruled under Saddam. There is no reliable postal system. No effective banking system. No registration system to monitor the population and its needs.

 The CIA Must Rely More on Collecting Human Intelligence

 Earlier this summer, when the CIA released the “family jewels” — nearly 700 pages of documents detailing some of its most infamous and illegal operations dating back to the 1950s — the question that immediately came to mind was: Why now?

 After all, Director of Central Intelligence Bill Colby had let some of those secrets out during the Church Committee hearings in the early 1970s. When Colby made the initial revelations, there was widespread anger among the old agency hands, particularly those from World War II’s Office of Strategic Services, the CIA’s precursor. Much of this anger resided in the division known as the Clandestine Service, which thought it owned most of the jewels. Colby had betrayed them. More gems dropped out of the bag in subsequent years.

Closing Statements from the candidates for Vermont’s U.S. House seat from the debate held at Middlebury College Mead Chapel on Sept. 26.

Peter Welch, Democrat:

“I believe our foreign policy must go in a new direction. We know that we face global challenges, the war on terrorism, AIDS, global warming, failed African states. And no single country can solve these problems alone. Global problems require global solutions.

“This election, in many ways, is about competing philosophies. The philosophy of the Bush presidency and the Bush Congress, both in domestic and foreign affairs, can be simply stated: You’re on your own.

“In domestic affairs, if you want healthcare, get a health savings account. And even if you’re one of the millions of American families that can’t balance their budget at the end of the month, you’re on your own. You want clean air and clean water, move. It’s not the job of your government to make certain that those are available to you and your family. To our young soldiers who are sent off to Iraq and Afghanistan and Kuwait on our behalf, with patriotic speeches, when they come home, it’s with the message that we’ve cut their veteran benefits. You’re on your own.

“That’s not acceptable.

“The philosophy of President Bush on foreign affairs is a variation on the same theme. Go it alone. America will go it alone. And nowhere have the consequences of this ill-devised approach to foreign affairs been more devastating than the reckless decision of George Bush to send American to war in Iraq.

“I want America to return to the bipartisan tradition that we have enjoyed since the second World War, where we are strong by working with our allies, not giving them the back of our hand. We should be proud of upholding, not debating, the Geneva Convention on torture. We should be working to strengthen the Kyoto protocol on global warming. We should be creating alliances that will help us bring our troops home from Iraq.

“This election is really not about me, or Martha, or Jane, or Will, or Dennis, or Keith, or Bruce. It’s really about you and your vision of what America can be.

“What I have seen, as the Vermont senate president, elected by Republicans and Democrats, is that when we have been successful, it’s always because we’ve worked together. And I believe that when America has been successful, it has used its strength to work with others.”