The Christian Science Monitor reported on a 67-page document released by two senior analysts from the U.S. Army War College that says a U.S. troop presence in Iraq cannot be sustained more than three years. The Christian Science Monitor is an independent, national award winning newspaper.
The War College analysts agree with President Bush that an early withdrawal from the region would embolden the insurgency; however, they said, “It is no longer clear that the United States will be able to create [Iraqi] military and police forces that can secure the entire country no matter how long U.S. forces remain.”
This puts the United States in a difficult position. If leaving Iraq bolsters the insurgency and also if U.S. Army strategists believe that the United States will not be able to create an Iraqi military no matter how long we stay there, than what are we to do?
The story also references an interview with a top military official on National Public Radio: “Lt. Gen. Odom said that the consequences of the U.S. invasion of Iraq had helped two of American’s opponents: Al Qaeda, because it gave them a place to train followers in terrorist tactics, and Iran, because it did the one thing that Tehran had been unable to do itself — get rid of Saddam Hussein. Odom also said there will be chaos in Iraq ‘whether we pull our now or in eight or 10 years.’ If the U.S. leaves now, however, he believes some positive benefits will result, such as Al Qaeda would be ‘run out of Iraq.’”
Why do we place so much importance on Iraq? Well, there are many reasons I can think of:
1. By being in Iraq, we may be attacking the “leaves and branches” of terrorism. Instead we should be attacking the roots, and that may or may not involve military action.
2. Iraq presents an opportunity for the United States to gain an additional foothold in an area of the world where terrorism is rampant.
3. The Iraq War represents the culmination of major mistakes in U.S. foreign policy. Iraq may be a single state, but in that sovereign state are two nations: the Kurdish-Sunnis and Arab-Shi’ites. The report referenced in this column asserts that one of the main issues is that the new Iraqi government may not be able to maintain cooperation between themselves as a multi-ethnic government or in the Iraqi Forces as a multi-ethnic military.
There is no easy answer for war. I do not envy anybody who can directly influence our presence in Iraq, including President Bush.
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