Secure the Kurds, Let the Rest Fight It Out

Submitted by Joe (United States), Dec 12, 2006 at 14:53

Pipes is right to dismiss this report, as well as to make the more important point that 'Stay the Course' is not working. Our problem from the beginning has been 3 fold:

1. A misguided assessment of the 'enemy' in the overall Global War on Terror. Unless one really links up the radical Islamist killers with the 'moderate' Islamist enablers of these killers, we will never have a cogent military strategy. The Iraq sectarian violence shows exactly how dysfunctional the larger Islamist society is. It's not about a few 'insurgents', or even that most of Iraq is 'peaceful'. It's that Islam itself will not reform or 'recover' until it hits bottom. Bush doesn't help things, 5 years after 9.11, by referring to Islam as a 'great religion', or a 'religion of peace'. That's just nonsense-talk for Egyption, Pakistani, and Saudi consumption. And ultimately American and European demoralization and appeasement.

2. Reliance on 'conventional' warfare models, vs. a truly asymmetric model. While Rumsfeld was correct to revamp the U.S. military adding more special ops teams, these teams have been hamstrung by a conventional 'clear and hold' strategy. And even more hamstrung by this 'winning hearts and minds' nonsense. Islamist propoganda will always be better than ours in an Islamist country, period. We failed to learn from Sadaam's experience in holding Iraq together. A military 'strongman' is necessary.

3. We fail to focus on the positive, like Kurdistan. Kurdistan is thriving amidst the insanity of Baghdad. By not focusing on the positive, and attempting to make 'democracy' work with the morass of Sunni/Shiite hatred, we are 'making the same mistake and expecting different results'. The definition of insanity for anyone who has ever attended an AA meeting.

My suggestion. Rebase 100% of all U.S. forces into Kurdistan. Protect the Kurds first. Abandon the 'Green Zone'. Keep Iran in check. Enable an Iraqi general (a Sunni hopefully) to sieze control of the Armed Forces and let the civil war against the Sadrists proceed with all deliberate speed. Use American airpower to support the strongman general when we locate him. Cut off all aid except for the Iraqi military and the Kurdish north. Use this money to create a 'secular' elite in the country, as Sadaam did with the Baathists. Only now it's 'our secular elite'. Re-institute elections and the Iraqi assembly only after the strongman has pacified Baghdad.

Our problem is a simple one. We truly suck at Imperialism. Which ultimately is to our credit. Why not accept that we suck at imperialism, that Iraqis see us as occupiers, and let the hatemongers on both sides fight it out. In the meantime, we get focused on Iran.

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