Go Big, Go Long, or Go Home

After 4 years the options are few.

“Go big, go long, or go home.” These were our options.

Go Big:
Well neither the Bush Administration nor the Congress nor the public seem to want to go big. Going big would mean a massive infusion of troops, not the poultry 30,000 we have put in now.

Go Long: Four years is a long time when no progress is being made either in infrastructure reconstruction, governmental institution building, the rebuilding of the Iraqi army, or the quelling of sectarian violence.

Go Home: This is a bitter pill, not beneficial to the US, Iraq, or world security.

We are stuck in Iraq. From my own point of view we only have one option left. It is not an option that the US public wants but the only one left to try. The only one that has not been tried. And that is to go Big. Going home would be morally reprehensible, to leave a nation shattered and dysfunctional would be a black mark on America far greater than Vietnam.

We are responsible for the mess in Iraq. Because of our early ineptitude, and hubris we allowed Iraq to devolve into chaos, while giving our true enemy a recruiting poster for their cause. Leaving will only exacerbate the problem. I see no way that leaving Iraq will in the long run benefit the US or the region. Things will not calm down. People who say for us to go are as shortsighted as the pathetic idiots that thought we would have a cake walk. I would love to have us get out of Iraq. I pray for us to get out of that dung heap. But we cannot simply walk away, nor can we rely on the UN or kindness of strangers. We are going to have to work the problem.

After reading much on the subject there is really no option that will bring stability to the region and security. War, once began, must be brought to a successful conclusion by the instigator or the instigator is made the weaker for it. That is why war must always be the very last option. This was a stupid war to start, but now we must finish it or the problems we will face in the future will be graver still. This is harsh but I see no other way.

Clearly Bush is a dead man walking (in the political sense) he lacks the leadership ability, the skill, and the political capital to bring the people together to solve this stinking problem. He will be gone long before this problem is solved. So the Congress, and the Pentagon need to really have a reality check and and begin to guide the President, not wait for the lame President to misguide them.

At this point it matters very little if the failure is upon the head of Bush. This is not a political game it is a war. I think some people in DC understand this. Many do not. The US is being pulled in two directions that are both wrong. The Surge is a big goose egg, as we all knew it would be, but to leave would be just as big a goose egg. Political suicide lays at the end of either road. Going big is really the only course left.

By going big I mean BIG. There needs to be 700,000 troops in Iraq, the population needs to be disarmed, and the population cowed. We do not need a provisional authority. We need the military administration of Iraq with civilian government on the lowest level first reporting to American generals not sectarian strong men in league with Iran. Furthermore people like Sadre need to be eliminated, and their followers crushed. Not talked to and brought into a cooperative government.

The reality is that if we want a democracy in Iraq then the forces that do not represent democracy need to be eliminated one way or another. Militant Islam and democracy do not mesh. You can have one or the other but not both.

This is a nasty problem and I in no way claim to find the solution palatable. But war has never been palatable, nor glorious, nor honorable, nor good. It is carnage pure and simple. We need to stop acting like school kids and start acting like adults.