More ‘What went Wrong?’
Carol Giacomo quotes an array of policy experts on the problem with the current US strategy in Iraq:
‘ What’s really needed is a viable political process and the building of a consensus – internationally, regionally and locally – to work our way out of this mess,” said retired Army General William Nash, a US commander in the Gulf War. “That’s what I don’t see anybody doing,” said Nash, now with the Council on Foreign Relations. ‘
Michael O’Hanlon ‘ of the Brookings Institution said US counter-insurgency strategy in the so-called “Sunni triangle” has been “pretty poor because we have rotated so many units through there and (have) so many philosophies for applying military force.” ‘
Anthony Cordesman ‘ of the Centre for Strategic and International Studies said . . . “The problem is that this is a political war…(and) the political outcome of Fallujah matters far more than getting more insurgents or pacifying the city,” he said. If the Americans and Iraqi mediators “find no one in Fallujah to compromise with, then we can pursue a military solution, but we have to understand that the military situation will create as many insurgents as it captures,” he added. ‘
‘ Still, one US official said Fallujah should be “flattened” and prominent Republican, William Kristol, wrote in his Weekly Standard magazine: “We trust that US troops will soon move to uproot what seems to have become a kind of terrorist sanctuary in Fallujah.”
Kenneth Pollack, ‘ author of a book on Iraq, said the US decision to move against Sadr was a “mistake,” especially when UN envoy Lakhdar Brahimi is trying to organise a June 30 political transition in the country. ‘
So guess who gets listened to? The Flattener and Billy Kristol (the unfunny one).