Sunday, February 26, 2006
Some people are still trying to fight the war in Iraq
As if it were possible to win. The WaPo has an interesting piece on the efforts of the military to act like they are still a major player in Iraq.
ADDENDUM: The latest Newsweek has more detail on what happened in Iraq last week.
Current U.S. military commanders say they have come to understand that they are fighting within a political context, which means the results must first be judged politically. The pace and shape of the war also have changed, with U.S. forces trying to exercise tactical patience and shift responsibilities to Iraqi forces, even as they worry that the American public's patience may be dwindling.Make no mistake, the US military has the means of great physical and human destruction at its command, still. The problem facing the military is that, as the last week has shown, they have allowed themselves to be shunted into political irrelevancy. The various elements of Iraqi politics are struggling for control without the US or its arms. And if that struggle devolves into civil war, the only real and viable alternative for the military will be to leave. As in Viet Nam, the ability to kill in great numbers or destroy large areas will not deter the Iraqis from their ultimate result, it will only increase the suffering. Better to leave now and let them sort it out now and hope they are not past the point of no return.
The war also has changed geographically. Over the last three years, it has developed a pattern of moving around the country, from Fallujah to Najaf to Mosul and Samarra and back to Fallujah. Last summer and fall it was focused in Tall Afar, in the northwest, and in the upper Euphrates, in the remote western part of Anbar province near Syria.
This year the war seems to hinge on the battle for Baghdad. Inside the capital, that promises to be primarily a political fight over the makeup of the future government of Iraq -- and whether it can prevent a civil war, a threat that appeared much more likely this week with the bombing of a Shiite shrine in Samarra and retaliatory attacks on Sunni mosques and clerics.
U.S. officials don't talk much about the prospects of civil war. It is unclear what role the United States would play if such a war broke out, but military strategists said American forces would be used to try to minimize violence but not to actually intervene between warring groups.
ADDENDUM: The latest Newsweek has more detail on what happened in Iraq last week.
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