About Iraq, that is. That’s the question asked by John Broder in an article in the New York Times this morning and it is, indeed, the question. Answers range from “get out now†to the fanciful “over the horizon withdrawal†in six or eighteen months to Joe Biden’s adult acknowledgement that a failed state in the center of the Middle East is not in U. S. interests which he conjoins with an ineffective division of Iraq into three ethnic/sectarian autonomous zones.
I opposed the invasion of Iraq for reasons that I’ve outlined here from time to time but we’re there now and I don’t think a failed state in the center of the Middle East with both water and oil is in U. S. interests. The only thing that gives us any say whatever in the outcome in Iraq is our military presence there. How would forfeiting what little say we have be in the U. S. interest?
And that’s the follow-up question I’d like to ask anyone proposing a solution to the problem that Iraq presents for us: how does your solution further U. S. interests?
I have been hoping for 3 years now to see us actually implement a valid counterinsurgency plan in Iraq. It’s troubling to me that we continue to put so much emphasis on convential military options to maintain security. We have a decent framework up and running in Afghanistan – why not Iraq? Admittedly, CI in urban Iraq is probably more difficult than rural Afghanistan, but I’m surprised that more hasn’t been done in this regard. The Army wrote a new field manual on CI but has yet to follow any of its major strategies. Greg Djerejian linked a good essay I wish our leaders would read: http://www.au.af.mil/au/awc/awcgate/milreview/sepp.pdf
That is where I would begin.