The Iraq analogy, and how do I explain?

There is much friction in our country about how things have gone in our campaign in Iraq. I think most would say things could be better from our USA point of view, and I am being kind.

The more I read the more I don’t know whether to assign my venom to the President, or to his hired (appointed well educated fools) who have done their best in Iraq. In the end, the President did hire them, and it is his problem in the end.

I do think the President has gone through a thought process, and things will change for the USA advantage. We will see.

Does anyone think we are winning the peace in the Baghdad/Sunni area? And yes, we are winning the peace in Kurdistan, and southern Iraq. Thank goodness the Brits are being themselves in the Basra city area of southern Iraq.

The way I grew up was to reinforce success, not failure. If our President does not or can not do this, then we and he are dead in the water. There is much hope given our President’s style that he will reinforce success.

Let me describe reinforcing success to the layman. This means about three things, to make it sound simple.
A. Change the military rules of engagement so we can go on the offense in the bad Iraqi areas. Not only seek out and destroy the people who oppose us, but impose our own solution and strategic goals. If the present Iraqi government doesn’t get it, then so be it. “Surge” is fine, but unless we unlease our military to fight, we are doomed by the present strategy.
B. Put one person in charge of the effort (assuming the President will not step up the plate, as he should). The State Department and all the D.C. procurement rules be damned. Let the military and CIA spread money around to accomplish the mission, which is the establishment of a democracy in the middle of the middle east. If I had a family to support, any money would help me, my family, and my loyalty.
C. Go regional. Apply all our national resources to accomplishing regime change in Iran and Syria. I think we are doing this already, and times are ripe, from their point of view. But in the meantime, change the military rules of engagement along the borders to let our people to take control of the borders (not the Iraqis), and then kill or confine the invaders from Iran and Syria. It will be a shock if finally some government from the west finally tells these eastern governments to quit.

Back to trying to explain. My opinion is that our strategy and resulting rules of engagement are part of why we are losing in Baghdad and the Sunni Triangle. When we let go captured bad guy leaders to satisfy our newly installed/elected Iraqi leaders for their problems, we are not in control. Control was earned by war, not by other means.

Let’s go to our local city for another analogy. If our local police seek out and find and arrest some bad guys, we expect the justice system to follow up. If local politics let’s them go, then we will lose faith in our system.

Enough said.