Strategy for Iraq

It was easy to measure success and failure in World War II. Success was where we gained ground. And, where ground was gained, politics changed immediately for the better. And that was what the war was about: changing politics - the politics of Hitler's Germany and imperialist Japan.

General Petraeus has given us statistical details on Iraq that suggest progress and military success. But military progress cannot be sustained without political progress, and there is no sign of that on the horizon.

General Petraeus is an academically able man, but like everyone else's statistics, his do not give a complete picture, and like everyone else he accompanies his statistics with assumptions. But there are some things from his message that we can cheer. Sunnis have been turning against al-Qaeda. That should not be a surprise. Terrorism works politically only under limited circumstances. We can cheer General Petraeus' description of people in Fallujah having taken control of their city - as well as his description of reduced violence elsewhere. General Petraeus gives credit to the Iraqis for turning against al-Qaeda, as we should. Also the U.S. military has been killing al-Qaeda members, which they could be doing from the kind of enclaves and the reduced forces suggested by members of the think tank CSIS many months ago. Rather than using al-Qaeda as a reason for our being in Iraq, when can we let go of the fear of al-Qaeda in Iraq becoming an effective movement?

No analyst has been calling for a withdrawal of the force we have among the Kurds of Iraq. The Kurds want us for protection, and among them we are not taking casualties. The problem for us is in areas that we are not wanted. Another poll in Iraq indicates that the majority of people there want us out. Should not our conservative friends who believe in local self-government ask what right we have to be imposing our will where we are not wanted? That is not liberation, it's occupation. Why should we not pull back from the areas where we are not wanted and let people there solve their own problems?

According to General Petraeus' statistics the violence has subsided slightly from its recent high. Some of that violence is by Iraqis against U.S. forces. There will always be an opposition to our presence in Iraq. People don't like foreign troops on their soil. Eventually we will leave, and eventually the civil war will wind down. Civil wars always do, sometimes after a decade or so. The issue of Iraq as presented to us by the White House and by General Petraeus is that of U.S. control in Iraq and turning control over to Iraqis. The assumption is that those who take control in our place with our effort will make Iraq a bastion of democracy. We should not count on it. Iraq will eventually become what the Iraqis will make of it.

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