INDCJournal: Whither Iraq Policy?

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December 18, 2006

Whither Iraq Policy?

Posted by Dave Price

Is this Bush's new plan for Iraq? Fred Barnes thinks so.

Highlights:

We must change our focus from training Iraqi soldiers to securing the Iraqi population and containing the rising violence. Securing the population has never been the primary mission of the U.S. military effort in Iraq, and now it must become the first priority.
We must send more American combat forces into Iraq and especially into Baghdad to support this operation. A surge of seven Army brigades and Marine regiments to support clear-and-hold operations starting in the Spring of 2007 is necessary, possible, and will be sufficient.
...
The president must request a dramatic increase in reconstruction aid for Iraq. Responsibility and accountability for reconstruction must be assigned to established agencies. The president must insist upon the completion of reconstruction projects. The president should also request a dramatic increase in CERP funds.

Interestingly, it claims the other options proposed by the ISG and Pentagon will fail, as they don't adequately address what they see as the center of gravity of the entire effort: the effect of Iraqi violence on American public opinion. I have my doubts that seven brigades of U.S. forces will be "sufficient" to accomplish what they're talking about (one consequence of the asymmetrical nature of the conflict is that it takes much less effort for our enemies to maintain the status quo), but I certainly agree public opinion is central and that more reconstruction funds should be allocated.

And the Keane/Kagan plan sure beats the "it's time to cut our losses and write Iraq off" conventional wisdom. I've been a fan of Fareed's work in the past, but the cause of liberty is rarely advanced by giving up, and squandering real progress for some vague notion of promoting freedom by being better liked seems both reckless and feckless.

Posted by Dave Price at December 18, 2006 12:35 PM | TrackBack (2)

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Comments

...the cause of liberty is rarely advanced by beating your head against a wall either.

Posted by: Rick DeMent at December 18, 2006 02:54 PM

The Bush plan will be designed in a vain attempt to salvage his so-called legacy. The invasion was a strategic blunder, however, and the current American occupation is unworkable. It is past time for American troops to regroup at the borders between Iraq and Syria and Iran, and to let the Iranians sort out their political problems for themselves. If, as expected, President Bush fails to do so, the next President will certain withdraw American troops from the middle of Iran's incipient civil war because the American electorate will continue to demand withdrawal. Thus, I think the next American election will decide the outcome in Iraq, and it will not be pretty.

Posted by: PubliusToo at December 18, 2006 03:03 PM

...the cause of liberty is rarely advanced by beating your head against a wall either.

The platform of McClellan's party when he ran against Lincoln, iirc.

I think Solzhenitsyn and Sharansky would disagree with you too. Keep banging long enough with enough heads, and eventually the walls fall. Like the one in Berlin, for instance.

Posted by: TallDave at December 18, 2006 05:35 PM

I hope he knows what he's doing. It seems like he's starting to make decisions based on popular opinion instead of making good decisions and leading popular opinion.

Posted by: aaron at December 19, 2006 12:29 PM

I think Solzhenitsyn and Sharansky would disagree with you too. Keep banging long enough with enough heads, and eventually the walls fall. Like the one in Berlin, for instance.

Yeah but George III of England would agree, so I’ll see your Solzhenitsyn and Sharansky and raise you a king George III. :)

BTW I don't recall invading the iron curtain and fighting a guerilla war.

Posted by: Rick DeMent at December 20, 2006 01:10 PM

Heh. As a liberty-firster I don't think that's much of a raise.

BTW I don't recall invading the iron curtain and fighting a guerilla war.

There's actually a burgeoning cottage industry in publishing books detailing the low-level guerrilla struggles against Soviet domination that went on in places like Estonia and Latvia. They read almost like a nonfictionalized versions of Red Dawn. And in the end, liberty and democracy won, to the shock of nearly everyone.

I remember hearing over and over from the experts in the 1980s how the Soviet Union was going to be around forever, while the United States was going to decline into a Third World country. I can just hear them now: "Why bang our heads againt the wall? The Soviet Union isn't going away."

Posted by: TallDave at December 21, 2006 01:13 PM

The 'commando movements' of Estonia and Latvia were a far cry from USA's murderous rampage across the Middle East.

Posted by: Private genocide-contractor at December 30, 2006 07:37 AM