04 September 2007
Turning the Tide in Iraq
It is deeply suspicious that the defense of the U.S. military’s surge strategy in Iraq in the September 4, 2007, Wall Street Journal should be written by the President of the Institute for the Study of War. Without such adventures as the U.S. invasion of Iraq, what would Ms. Kagan’s institute have to study?
She calls on us to continue to fight Al Qaeda in Iraq, but it turns out that the definition of that foe is, really, Sunni resisters to American occupation. She also calls on us to continue fighting Iranian partisans in Iraq, but it turns out that her definition of that foe is, really, Shiite resisters to American occupation. What remains is sectarian strife, i.e. those factions in Iraq who fight each other.
Turning the Tide in Iraq will only happen when the U.S. pulls out. Sadly, liberating the Iraqi people from the geopolitical straitjacket imposed by the British following WWI was the only benefit of the Bush invasion of that country. It will have painful consequences that neither the U.S., U.K., nor U.N. can forestall. Better to get it over with. Maybe then the benefit that conspiracy-theorists have claimed as being behind the invasion—securing clear access to Iraq’s oil wealth—will actually be achievable.
