Comments on: Iraq: Backwards Into the Future

By: kritter

kritter — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 17:04:55 +0000

Shaun, Lynx — I mostly agree with both of you. If we had to invade Iraq—a very questionable assumption in my view, it should have at least been managed with competence. The way it has been mismanaged up until this point has put Petraeus in an almost impossible position. He has at the most 6 months to prove to Congress and the public that he is capable of restoring order in Baghdad with much fewer troops than most experts recommend, and with having to rely on unpredictable variables- the ability of the Iraqi government to function, the ability of a Shiite-dominated administration to achieve political compromise, and the willingness of the Iraqi army to defend the concept of national unity.

Should he not succeed, and I have more confidence in him than I do his mission, the partisan fallout will be endless. The ugly election politics we saw in ’06 will be nothing compared to what we will see in ’08.

How tragic that this administration put most of its efforts into creating political cover for its flawed war policies, and so little into the war policies themselves. When Bush ran in 2000, he had this to say about Clinton:
(his) cardinal mistake was “to launch today’s new causes with little thought of tomorrow’s consequences”. I’m trying to think of any consequences of the Clinton years that compare with the tragic consequences of Bush’s Iraq policy.

The only mystery that remains unsolved is whether he will turf this hot potato to the next administration, or be forced out of a lost cause by his own party after the summer’s over.

By: Shaun Mullen

Shaun Mullen — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 13:15:42 +0000

Lynx:

I have to agree with you except for the last part. It is increasingly likely that Bush will dump the whole mess in his successor’s lap.

By: Lynx

Lynx — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 12:44:14 +0000

The “surge” (more like trickle) is not likely to work, and I am very much opposed to it, under the principle that, like Vietnam, we’ve already lost and more resources will not make things much better or our failure less apparent. But the surge is happening anyway, and since it is, I think that we have to give our confidence in the military high command (which does NOT mean the Administration) to do what they can. Opposing the “win them over” strategy on the grounds that you oppose our presence in Iraq is not productive. They are there, it’s not good, so let’s see what we can do within the mess of it all to make it the least bad we can.

I don’t really see a withdrawl happening until just before the ’08 elections or just after them. Until then, let the generals do what they need to do to keep their people alive.

By: munaeem

munaeem — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 11:17:13 +0000

We need to do the following :

1. Conduct a census
To know the composition of ethnic groups.
American assertion that Shias are majority is a lie.
2. Reinstate all Sunnis employees , whom Americans fired.

3. Hand-over the Affairs of Iraq to UN.