It's kind of funny that there's an actual argument that this would work. The Byzantines thought the same thing, when they controlled the "Greek Sea." Didn't really work out all that well for them in the end.
Ahem, scratch the word "Victory" and replace it with "Success."...it's Washington's way of wording things.
One only needs a Positive Mental Attitude.
Sadly there are several on the Iraqi Study Group that have had remarkable careers but this final report will most likely define their place in history instead of their accomplishments.
It's really a no-brainer--even for armchair generals who've only read a little military history. The way to win in Iraq is to step on and denazify the main source of trouble in the middle east and guerrilla strength in Iraq: Iran.
Only in Washington DC would you form a Congressional Commission and include not a single retired military officer with Counter Insurgency expereince or any Arab-Persian Political/Cultural Regional Expert on the panel.
Some where the ghost of LBJ is laughing his butt off watching another bunch of DC policy geeks and Beltway insiders trying to micromanage a war from 9,000 miles away
Our actions in the middle east have always been half-steps. Policies are run by people like Baker and Cheney who want to go only far enough to ensure stable oil supplies. First means was secular dictators. Now it's democracy. Neither work in jihadist tribal societies; the power of dictatorships always falls to the concerns of the tribes, and democracy never takes root. Unfortunately, jihadism takes no half steps and what the ISG ignores is the victory of jihadism in the middle east. The result is that oil supply stability is in the last 10 seconds of the countdown. In the absence of US leadership - and it is entirely absent - Saudi arabia and iran have an opportunity now to dictate terms in iraq and align themselves against us. They can draw up the lines of control in the middle east, then broker a separate peace with israel and we'll have no leverage whatsoever with the three major oil suppliers.
"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached." -Manuel II Paleologus
according to the antisemetic baker....79 steps to victory in iraq...
#'s 1-78....blame Israel and the Jews
#79 .... cut & run!!!
are any points missed???
Step 1: The 79 steps are destined to failure.
Step 2: Blame Bush for the failure.
I have sit here for two weeks and, read many accts. of solving our problem in the Iraq war.
I have deduced, the arm chair generals who say we must fight as we did in World War Two, and previous wars where we used the full scale of our military in destroying the enemy, have it right.
If those in DC who are running this war doesn't get their heads out of their ass we are definitely going to loose this fight.
People in America think our military might is so great there's no way we can loose. How deceived they are.
Mr. Baker returns untutored in the ways of that region. A new, deadly struggle has erupted between American power and the forces of terrorism in the Islamic world. A “wise man” who proposes to fix Iraq by returning the Golan Heights to Syria has missed the meaning of Iraq. This report describes a long-vanished Arab world: Its poverty is given away in its banal language, in that familiar assertion that all of history yields to the fixer’s touch.
We should move our troops to the Kurdish controlled area of Iraq because they have their act together. It's peaceful and prospering. Protect that area at all cost.
Forget Baghdad metro area. If the Iraqis in that area want to kill each other off....give them the space and let them do it.
The violence is like a deadly virus....let the virus run its course and allow it die out naturally.