Let's Talk About Iraq - Thomas Friedman

Let's Talk About Iraq - New York Times:

"Maybe it is too late, but before we give up on Iraq, why not actually try to do it right? Double the American boots on the ground and redouble the diplomatic effort to bring in those Sunnis who want to be part of the process and fight to the death those who don't. As Stanford's Larry Diamond, author of an important new book on the Iraq war, 'Squandered Victory,' puts it, we need 'a bold mobilizing strategy' right now. That means the new Iraqi government, the U.S. and the U.N. teaming up to widen the political arena in Iraq, energizing the constitution-writing process and developing a communications-diplomatic strategy that puts our bloodthirsty enemies on the defensive rather than us. The Bush team has been weak in all these areas. For weeks now, we haven't even had ambassadors in Iraq, Afghanistan or Jordan.

"We've already paid a huge price for the Rumsfeld Doctrine - 'Just enough troops to lose.' Calling for more troops now, I know, is the last thing anyone wants to hear. But we are fooling ourselves to think that a decent, normal, forward-looking Iraqi politics or army is going to emerge from a totally insecure environment, where you can feel safe only with your own tribe."

Comment: Yes, but who thinks we could put 270,000 troops on the ground in Iraq now? We have two ways to do that: get help from the United Nations, and start a draft. We've rejected the first option, and at this point the UN wouldn't do it anyway. If we draft people to go to Iraq, then you'll truly see opposition to the war rise. One terrible consequence of the war has been to show our enemies how weak we are. Yes, we have the strongest army, navy and air force by far, but we can't put much more than 150,000 volunteers in Iraq indefinitely, and our enemies know it. And they know that domestic support even for the current commitment is waning. So they sense that time is on their side. That means we've lost the initiative, which has been obvious since, as Friedman puts it, "the looting started."