RSS 2.0 FeedA Take On Bush’s Iraq Surge…
by KevinSince I haven’t weighed in on Bush’s surge yet, I figure now is the time. The speech itself sounded like the usual canned Iraq war speech that Bush has been giving for almost 4 years now. Hugh Hewitt gave the speech a solid B plus while more sober pundits like George Will say Bush’s “plan” is a failure.
Instead of heaping more criticism on Bush’s “plan”, I will attempt to present one of my own.
1) Withdraw all American troops out of Baghdad and other urban areas and allow Iraqi forces to secure those areas. Make it very clear that American and other international troops will not interfere with Iraqi forces unless Al-Qaeda or Baathist forces retake the cities. American troops will act as a rapid reaction force to assist Iraqi forces if they are unable to maintain control.
2) Redeploy American troops to Anbar province to finish off the remaining Al-Qaeda fighters there.
3) Redeploy American troops to bases in Kurdistan, to protect convoys from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, and to forward firebases along the Syrian and Iranian borders to secure the borders against infiltration by foreign fighters. In addition, give American forces authorization to pursue militants across the border.
4) Demand the Iraqi government develop and pass legislation within six months to share oil revenue among all Iraqis in an oil trust or the United States will pull all support for the Iraqi government and begin an immediate withdrawal.
5) The primary U.S. mission in Iraq, other than defeating Al-Qaeda, is the training of Iraqi forces. To do this, U.S. troops will be embedded as advisors to bring more units into action as soon as possible. If there is no progress in the quality of Iraqi forces, the U.S. will end all support for the training mission.
6) If the Iraqi government does not crackdown on sectarian militias within six months, the U.S. will end all support for the Iraqi government.
7) Victory in Iraq will be defined as the destruction of Al-Qaeda in Iraq and the leaving behind of a stable government that does not support terrorism in Iraq.
My modest proposal not for merely withdrawing American forces in Iraq, but for victory. The Iraqi government must be forced to do its part by threatening a withdrawal of support. In addition, our troops need to be taken out of the middle of the Iraqis and their sectarian war.
I thought it would work better if they took the Iraqis out of the country to train them.
Comment by VRB — January 13, 2007 @ 12:03 amYour points are well stated, I would especially emphasize removing US troops from the sectarian war
Comment by TJ — January 13, 2007 @ 2:43 pmConservative Brownback rips troop surge
Brownback leading conservative candidate for President from the GOP does not support Bush’s new plan to increase troops in Iraq. President Bush has lost support from all sides on his plan. Do you think it is fair to the troops for the President to go forward with very little support? Do you think it is time for everyone in Congress to go on the record if they support the new plan before President Bush sends in more troops?
BAGHDAD – U.S. Senator Sam Brownback today commented on President Bush’s proposal to increase the number of troops deployed to Iraq.
“I do not believe that sending more troops to Iraq is the answer,” said Brownback. “Iraq requires a political rather than a military solution. In the last two days, I have met with Prime Minister Maliki, with two deputy presidents and the president of the Kurdish region. I came away from these meetings convinced that the United States should not increase its involvement until Sunnis and Shi’a are more willing to cooperate with each other instead of shooting at each other.”
During a two day visit to Iraq, Brownback met with several Iraqi and U.S. officials, including U.S. Generals Raymond Odierno and George Casey, Jr., and U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad.
Brownback continued, “The Kurdish leadership does not wish to get in the middle of a sectarian fight between the Sunni and Shi’a, and the United States should not either. Instead of surging troops, we must press the Iraqi government to reach a political solution. We cannot achieve a political solution while a military solution is imposed. The best way to reach a democratic Iraq is to empower the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own nation building.”
Comment by John Konop — January 13, 2007 @ 5:22 pmNot sure if everyone has seen these videos of the US military in Iraq or not, but they are pretty amazing: Hopefully our ‘surge’ will not include too many of these types…
Comment by MinorRipper — January 19, 2007 @ 10:54 amhttp://minor-ripper.blogspot.com/2006/12/winning-hearts-and-minds-part-three.html