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Major Strategic Shifts

Iraqis Are in the Lead in Ensuring Success –U.S. in Support Role
•Place the responsibility for success on the Iraqis
•Recognize and expect that sectarian violence must be addressed by Iraqis
•Encourage Iraqis to reach national reconciliation
•Urge Iraqi Government to serve Iraqis in an impartial way

The Primary Mission Is Helping Iraqis Provide Security to the Population
•Help Iraqis provide greater levels of security in Baghdad in order to enable political and economic progress
•Help Iraqis create the security environment in which political deals needed to sustain security gains can be made
•Bolster Iraqi capabilities and transfer responsibility to able units as part of this effort

Moderates Will Be Vigorously Supported in their Battle with Violent Extremists
•Counter extremist portrayalof Iraq’s conflict as Sunni vs. Shi’a, rather than moderates vs. extremists
•Recognize and act upon the reality that the United States has a national interest in seeing moderates succeed
•Build and sustain strategic partnerships with moderate Shi’a, Sunnis, and Kurds

We Will Diversify our Political and Economic Effort in Iraq to Achieve Our Goals
•Increase attention to developments outside of the International Zone –emphasize flexibility
•Help Iraqi provincial governments deliver to their constituents and interact with Baghdad
•Extend the political and economic influence through the expansion of our civilian effort

We Will Further Integrate Our Civil and Military Efforts
•Harness all elements of national power; further augment joint civilian-military efforts throughout theater
•Resource at levels that assume a resilient enemy and realistic assessment of Iraqi capacity over the next 12 months

Embedding Our Iraq Strategy in a Regional Approach is Vital to Success
•Iraq is a regional and international challenge
•Intensify GOI and USG efforts to expand regional and international help, counter Iran and Syria meddling
•Invigorate diplomatic efforts to improve the regional context

We Must Maintain and Expand Our Capabilities for the Long War
•Acknowledge that succeeding in Iraq is the immediate challenge, but it is not the last challenge
•Ensure we have adequate national capabilities to fight the long war, on the military and civilian side

http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/iraq/2007/iraq-strategy011007.pdf