[hsalaw]

Why is this called "a fallback plan"? I thought this was the original plan: train the Iraqis to defend their own new democracy, and we'll leave when they're capable.

[Mad_Tom_Rackham]

As though this wasn't the strategy from Day One? How stupid can the MSM and sheeple be?

[lonestar67]

Its interesting that the media is now de escalating its metaphors.

We don't hear much Vietnam anymore.

Now we move on to the milder El Salvador metaphor with far less salience and less compelling narrative.

The media is doomed in its war against Bush and our troops.

[mdittmar]

There has been a fall back strategy lately for the terrorists,it's called leave or die.

[KellyAdmirer]

"We haven't won too many of these things with big efforts," said a former military officer who has advised the Pentagon. "But we have done all right with the supporting efforts."

Supporting efforts? Supporting what? We disbanded the entire Iraqi Army and it appears still to be incapable of securing its own country. The US Army in Iraq is what needs support.

[bnelson44]

Please spread the word about an appeal for redress that people in the military can sign to show support for the mission:

www.appealforcourage.org

[RWB Patriot]

And after we do this, the RATs will implement their 'surrender strategy': cut off aid, let Iraq fall to the terrorists, and blame it all on Bush.

[Steel Wolf]

A strategy following the El Salvador model would be a dramatic break from President Bush's current policy of committing large numbers of U.S. troops to aggressive counterinsurgency tactics, but it has influential backers within the Pentagon.

I can only hope this is true. This is the plan that I've been advocating for some time. It has two effects, the first being to remove the U.S. presence out of the Iraqi bloodstream, and the second is that SOCOM would be running the show. That will whittle down Big Army's incompetent, bureaucratic influence, and allow the SOF community to use their flexible, decentralized methods to full effect.

We don't need 120k troops in Iraq, and we don't need 150k. We need closer to 50k, in the right places, builing stregth behind the scenes, and acting as a trump card for the Iraqi military. We need to end this pointless presence patrolling, and put the onus on the Iraqis to defend themselves. They're certainly capable of it, we just need to take off the training wheels and force them to improve their game.

Doing the right thing here may look like we're retreating, and that fear has been what's kept us doing the wrong thing for years. We're so afraid of giving the enemy a propaganda victory that we're cheating ourselves of a real one. It's time we got over that and admitted that we can't occupy Iraq the way we're trying. We can rebuild Iraq from the bottom up, not the top down, and it's time we got at it.