WP: Calls for Shift in Iraq Strategy Growing: Protect Population Centers

[DeepModem Mom]

Calls for Shift in Iraq Strategy Growing
Lawmakers, Experts Urge Military to Focus More on Protecting Population Centers
By Bradley Graham
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 11, 2005; Page A16


A growing number of U.S. lawmakers and defense experts are urging a shift in U.S. military strategy in Iraq that would focus less on trying to secure the whole country and more on shoring up protection of major population centers.

The arguments for change arise from concern that U.S. and Iraqi forces lack the numbers still to combat insurgents everywhere and that enemy fighters have continued to show a disturbing ability to cause significant casualties in major Iraqi cities that by now should have become safe zones.

In the aftermath of fresh bombings yesterday in Baghdad and Tikrit, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) added his voice to those calling for a new focus. He said the emphasis up to now on rooting out insurgent strongholds through widespread, short-duration raids -- what he termed "sweeping and leaving" -- is not working.

"Rather than focusing on killing and capturing insurgents, we should emphasize protecting the local population, creating secure areas where insurgents find it difficult to operate," the senator said in a speech at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank. He added that such an approach would require more troops and resources, arguing against the idea of reducing U.S. forces in Iraq next year.

The persistent ability of enemy groups to move fighters around the country -- eluding raids or replenishing their ranks after taking casualties -- has put pressure on the Pentagon to demonstrate that U.S. tactics are effective. U.S. commanders have acknowledged a measure of frustration at needing to send forces back to some cities and towns where insurgents had returned after being chased out months earlier. But they insist progress is being made....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/10/AR2005111002063.html

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. This is all stupid. This is like squeezing a balloon.

They have to focus on figuring out a way to get out of that place as soon as possible.

[Newsjock]

2. They're just playing it by ear

Plan? What plan? We don't need no steeenkin' plan.

[TheGunslinger]

3. Iraq is going to turn into a terrorist haven one way or another.

The only way to prevent that from happening will result in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people...if not millions...and will involve a good half million US troops and hundreds and hundreds of daily sorties.

[DavidDvorkin]

4. Repeating both the French and our experience in Vietnam

Ceding the countryside and trying to hold on in the cities.

[NWHarkness]

10. "Strategic hamlets"

It didn't work then, it won't work now.

[DeepModem Mom]

12. A very grim reminder. nt

[aquart]

5. You mean like walled cities, with moats?

And big, thick-walled castles where everyone can take refuge in an attack? Like that?

Gosh, haven't we come a long way, baby.

Tell you what, fellas. Get a shovel. Dig a little. All of that is right beneath your feet.

[The Traveler]

6. Ya gotta do both at the same time

and the means we need more troops. Lots more troops. Or, if we are unwilling to commit the force (a sensible choice at this point, in my view), then we must withdraw. It would probably be best to withdraw in a systematic manner in cooperation with an international peacekeeping force assembled by the UN.

[deadparrot]

7. This just pisses me off to no end.

I've been reading Franken's new book, and apparently in the run-up to the invasion, Bush invited an Iraqi exile (now a professor ar Brandeis) to the WH for a Superbowl party, and had to explain the differences between Sunnis, Shias, and Kurds to the fuckwit-in-chief. It wasn't that he didn't know the fine points of the religious and cultural differences--he didn't know there WAS a difference.

Damn these people to hell. :banghead: :nuke: :grr:

[cantstandbush]

8. The only strategy is for the US to leave and let the Iraqis duel it out.

These civilizations have endured longer than our own. They may have some fights and they may break into three separate areas or they may just continue with the civil wars for years. Whatever...all we are doing is killing more and more people and making more and more enemies. It wasn't until we left Viet Nam that the situation improved. It was bloody but no more bloody than when we were there. We need to get the hell out of Iraq now!

[countmyvote4real]

9. We went after the wrong dictator and cabal.

We need our troops here lest someone else decides to clean our house for us.

[Sinistrous]

11. When the announcement of this new "strategy" is decoded

it reads: WE HAVE LOST!

Sinistrous

[Barrett808]

13. Ah, the old Soviet strategy in Afghanstan

McCain and the Oil Spots
http://www.juancole.com/2005/11/mccain-and-oil-spots-senator-john.html