Posted on 01/11/2007 8:56:10 PM PST by jazusamo
So he didn't take my advice. Despite recommendations to the contrary in this column last week, President Bush announced Wednesday night that he's "committed more than 20,000 additional American troops to Iraq." That's the headline. But there's a lot more to the story. It's rife with risk -- and great opportunity.
First, the good news: The most important statement of the speech was an accurate description of the present situation. Said Bush: "The challenge playing out across the broader Middle East is more than a military conflict. It is the decisive ideological struggle of our time." The president went on to acknowledge that "only the Iraqis can end the sectarian violence and secure their people," and that "failure in Iraq would be a disaster for the United States." He's dead right on all counts.
His new strategy for using U.S. forces in Baghdad follows a model now being effectively employed in Al Anbar Province. There, as we reported last month from Ramadi for FOX News, Sunni police officers, Shia Army troops and U.S. military personnel have been building police stations and driving Al Qaeda terrorists out of the provincial capital one neighborhood at a time. The administration's "New Way Forward" also concedes the need for the Maliki government to apply the rule of law equally, the necessity for provincial elections and recognition that local leaders -- like Sheikh Abdel Sattar -- are crucial to rallying the minority Sunni population in defending Iraq from foreign intervention.
Bush promised more "embedded" advisers to accelerate training Iraqi police and Army units, less onerous "restrictions" on U.S. troops and a desperately needed emphasis on Provincial Reconstruction Teams to improve economic resuscitation and new laws ensuring equitable distribution of Iraq's vast oil wealth. And though the masters of the mainstream media and our professional punditry generally ignored the point, instead of coddling Iran and Syria, as recommended by the Iraq Study Group, the president is choosing to confront them, promising to "destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq."
In a clear signal to Iraq's neighbors who have been reading U.S. public opinion polls and listening to anti-war activists like Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the commander in chief announced the dispatch of "an additional carrier strike group to the region," and promised our allies -- read Israel, Turkey and Saudi Arabia -- additional Patriot ballistic missile defense systems. And in a straightforward appeal to Congress to relieve the very real stress on our weary military, Bush urged an increase in "the size of the active Army and Marine Corps so that America has the armed forces we need for the 21st century."
If all of these changes, not just more U.S. troops in Iraq, materialize as Bush described them on Wednesday evening, they could well help to ensure "the survival of a young democracy that is fighting for its life." Unfortunately, many of the ingredients for success are not in his hands. And therein are the great risks in his "New Way Forward."
There is no assurance that Congress will actually authorize or fund essential increases in our Army and Marine Corps. While Bush called for "talented American civilians" to deploy overseas to "build democratic institutions," he did not place the rest of the U.S. government on a war footing. Even now, the only Americans fighting this war are soldiers, sailors, airmen, Guardsmen and Marines.
Though he called on Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf states to recognize how threatened they are by an American defeat in Iraq, there is no indication that these governments are willing to accept reality. Dispatching Condoleezza Rice to the region may help, but only if our "diplomats" refrain from tying success in Iraq to resolving "the Arab-Israeli dispute." Instead of sending our Secretary of State to the Mid-East, it might have been more fruitful for her to visit some of our new NATO allies with an appeal for more troops, and ordering most of the State Department to serve in Iraq.
But the greatest vulnerabilities to Bush's strategy reside in Baghdad and Washington. By endorsing "Iraqi government plans to take responsibility for security in all of Iraq's provinces by November," Bush has defined a timeline and created political expectations here at home that the Maliki administration may be unwilling or unable to fulfill.
Though I have documented the bravery of Iraqi police and soldiers defending their own streets from terrorists, their courage has not been matched by elected officials in Baghdad. If Maliki fails to deliver on promises to crack down on the militias, equitably distribute oil wealth, reform his ministries, pay his soldiers and police and "create new jobs" in the next 10 months, the plan will collapse -- no matter how many U.S. troops we send to Iraq. At that point the new leaders in Congress will likely launch an effort -- as they did in 1974 with Vietnam -- to cut off funding, and thereby ensure disaster.
Finally, Bush noted that the days ahead "will demand more patience, sacrifice and resolve." That's undoubtedly true. Hopefully, the "author of liberty" to whom he appealed will grant at least patience and resolve to those in Congress who have forgotten the words to that great old hymn.
Ollie North for POTUS - 2008!
I think the average American is uninformed and in denial. They depend on the TV news and the MSM, get pablum, hear that if you are concerned about Islamic Terrorist you are "afraid" -- God forbid, and are mealy-brained about THINKING.
The people I talk to are clueless. Here in Los Angeles. How can that be??
It to me is like battered wives who say, 'Oh, if I were just a better wife he wouldn't beat me.' And when they do finally tell, THEY are considered the problem.
New Rules of Engagement:
Find a terrorist, Kill a terrorist.
I think you have an excellent bumper sticker there.
Can you imagine me driving around the SF Bay Area with a bumper sticker that said:
"FIND A TERROIST, KILL A TERROIST!"
Why, the local council members would be after the police to arrest me, issue search warrants to see if I owned firearms, or even a knife.
Great Idea, though.
He'd definitely get my vote.
Well, people might bash into you 'by mistake.' But you could also find friends .... :)
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