Getting out of Iraq and winning in Iraq have too much in common

One has only to go back to reading the fine print in the President’s speech about this issue in January, and the two resolutions from both Houses of Congress. They, and the American people are closer on this issue than the main stream media have reported. That’s their unprofessionalism, not anyone else’s. I bet most did not read the fine print. Now we are at the veto point, with all that misinformation still being reported.

The strategy change has been profound, mostly in D.C. New hardball players are in place in the State Department (John Negroponte as #2 and Ryan Crocker as Ambassador), Gates at Defense, and new Generals (Petraeus) in Iraq and Admirals in CentCom (Fallon). Besides the strategy change to include the Iran factor, is the classical third world insurgency method of treating the local friendly despots as such.

The practical application is simple. No matter how much we dress up the pig, Prime Minister Maliki is still our pig, and he had better listen. Thank goodness we are not treating him as an equal these days. Our support and blood and money are not open ended. This debate went on in 2003, and unfortunately it is still going on. Either way, today, we decide, not Maliki, and just how things have sorted out. If Maliki is not the one, so be it. The key point is that he is not in charge of the Americans, we are.

What seems amazing from the DC point of view is the amount of people talking past each other, apparently pursuing the most base political party goals. How sad, assuming all are Americans at heart. In the same vein is the idea that all this is happening anyway, and for some group to jump in and claim credit debases what is happening anyway.

Back to the basics. Strategies can win and lose. And we Americans have a history of both, unfortunately. The most simple and classic strategy goes back to the Small Wars Manual of 1940. Little has changed since then, except the talk and academia. I am not sure many in the third world listened to all this.

Bottom line: Don’t treat Maliki like an equal. He is not. We Americans are in charge of our future.