Tuesday, June 19, 2007

Simon and Takeyh on Iraq

Steve Simon and Ray Takeyh are drawing a good deal of heat for their Outlook piece in Sunday's Washington Post. Of course, it seems many have focused on the provocative title ("We've Lost"), but not too many have disputed what I think are the two critical assessments in the body of the piece:

"Iraq has no credible central government that U.S. forces can assist and no national army for them to fight alongside. U.S. troops can't beat the insurgency on their own; our forces are too few and too isolated to compete with the insurgents for the public's support. Meanwhile, the country's militias have become a law unto themselves, and ethnic cleansing gallops forward.

"But the most crucial reason why the war is lost is that the American people decisively rejected continuing U.S. military involvement last November. As far as the voters are concerned, the kitchen is closed."

I don't see much support at home for the decade-long commitment General Petraeus implied is needed, and the U.S. cannot force an Iraqi government to do what it doesn't want to do--a point I raised last week.

Comments:
No problems in Iraq. Everything is well. Any criticism is defeatism.
 
Don't worry, everything will be taken care of in the next six months--what we've always heard since 2003.
 
Maybe the Dark Lord of the Sith has contracted with the cloners to produce a new army for use in Iraq a la Star Wars episode II. Then you don't have to worry about the "kitchen being closed."
 
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