New Strategy for War Stresses Iraqi Politics

[grytpype]

Source: Washington Post

New Strategy for War Stresses Iraqi Politics
U.S. Aims to Oust Sectarians From Key Roles

By Ann Scott Tyson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 23, 2007; Page A01

Top U.S. commanders and diplomats in Iraq are completing a far-reaching campaign plan for a new U.S. strategy, laying out military and political goals and endorsing the selective removal of hardened sectarian actors from Iraq's security forces and government.

...

The plan anticipates keeping U.S. troop levels elevated into next year but also intends to significantly increase the size of the 144,000-strong Iraqi army, considered one of the more reliable institutions in the country and without which a U.S. withdrawal would spell chaos. "You will have to do something about the sucking noise when we leave," said a U.S. officer familiar with the plan.

The plan has three pillars to be carried out simultaneously -- in contrast to the prior sequential strategy of "clear, hold and build." One shifts the immediate emphasis of military operations away from transitioning to Iraqi security forces -- the primary focus under the former top U.S. commander, Gen. George W. Casey Jr. -- toward protecting Iraq's population in trouble areas, a central objective of the troop increase that President Bush announced in January.

...

Next, the plan emphasizes building the government's capacity to function, admitting severe weaknesses in government ministries and often nonexistent institutional links between the central government and provincial and local governments. This, too, is in contrast with Casey's strategy, which focused on rapidly handing over responsibility to Iraq's government.

Such a rapid transition "was derailed as a strategy," said one person involved with the plan. Instead, he described the focus of the next 18 to 21 months as "a bridging strategy" to set the necessary conditions for a handover.

Finally, the campaign plan aims to purge Iraq's leadership of a small but influential number of officials and commanders whose sectarian and criminal agendas are thwarting U.S. efforts. It recognizes that the Iraqi government is deeply infiltrated by militia and corrupt officials who are "part of the problem" and are maneuvering to kill off opponents, install sectarian allies and otherwise solidify their power for when U.S. troops withdraw, said one person familiar with the plan.



Read more: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/05/22/AR2007052201600_2.html?nav=rss_world

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Yes, another Plan B story that contradicts all the other Plan B stories.

Read the whole thing, it's just too sick to believe.

So it looks like we are going to do three impossible things.

1) Sustain the Surge for another 18 to 21 months,
2) Reconcile all the numerous warring factions,
3) Purge the ISF of all the militia influences, without making things even worse presumably.

All three things are impossible. But that's the plan, folks.

[madeline_con]

1. dupe

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x945105

[grytpype]

2. OK, but this belongs in LBN.

[mike_c]

3. new strategy...!?

:rofl:

You just can't make this shit up!

[grytpype]

4. Get this...

"Our notion of 'reconciliation' . . . is not necessarily where Iraqis are at right now," said Kilcullen, explaining that the word has no equivalent in Arabic.

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There is no Arabic word for "reconciliation!"

[RamboLiberal]

5. New Iraq strategy focuses on bad actors

Source: MSNBC/WP

Top U.S. commanders and diplomats in Iraq are completing a far-reaching campaign plan for a new U.S. strategy, laying out military and political goals and endorsing the selective removal of hardened sectarian actors from Iraq's security forces and government.

The classified plan, scheduled to be finished by May 31, is a joint effort between Gen. David H. Petraeus, the senior American general in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker. More than half a dozen people with knowledge of the plan discussed its contents, although most asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about it to reporters.

The overarching aim of the plan, which sets goals for the end of this year and the end of 2008, is more political than military: to negotiate settlements between warring factions in Iraq from the national level down to the local level. In essence, it is as much about the political deals needed to defuse a civil war as about the military operations aimed at quelling a complex insurgency, said officials with knowledge of the plan.

The groundwork for the campaign plan was laid out in an assessment formulated by Petraeus's senior counterinsurgency adviser, David J. Kilcullen, with about 20 military officers, State Department officials and other experts in Baghdad known as the Joint Strategic Assessment Team. Their report, finished last month, was approved by Petraeus and Crocker as the basis of a formal campaign plan that will assign specific tasks for military commands and civilian agencies in Iraq.

The plan anticipates keeping U.S. troop levels elevated into next year but also intends to significantly increase the size of the 144,000-strong Iraqi army, considered one of the more reliable institutions in the country and without which a U.S. withdrawal would spell chaos. "You will have to do something about the sucking noise when we leave," said a U.S. officer familiar with the plan.



Read more: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18775219/

[tabasco]

6. Iraq is the goose that lays golden eggs for Bush's corporate cronies.

They will not give up the goose without a fight. They will escalate this war as much as they can with their puppet in the Oval Office.

The Dems better start fighting like they are gangbusters fighting the mafia. The multinational robber barons don't give a damn about this Nation and will gladly enrich themselves to the detriment of our People.

[Barrett808]

7. "The Iraqi army, considered one of the more reliable institutions in the country"

If that's the linchpin of this plan, then we're doomed.