De-accessing partners = de-accessing outcomes

Datelineóabove the garage, Portsmouth RI, 21 April

Reference: "2 U.S. Generals Criticize a Ban of Ex-Iraq Elite," by Eric Schmitt, New York Times, 21 April, p. A1.

America hasn't declared a war against another nation-state since 1943.

A free cookie to anyone who can name that state.

Drum roll please . . . ÖÖÖÖÖÖÖ. Romania.

World War II was the last "total war" we waged, and in total war you not only defeat your enemy's army, you dismantle his political system and remake it in your own image. That is how we got modern-day Germany and Japan.

We no longer fight such wars, and thus no longer engage in such total makeovers.

We went into Panama looking for one guy. We went into Somalia and decided it was just one warlord and his cronies. We defeated Serbia by taking down the Milosevic clan. We went into Iraq looking for a deck of cards.

We no longer fight nations, states, governments or even militaries. We wage war against individuals only.

So it's important to be clear about who exactly are the bad guys and who exactly are the good guys. Saddam and the deck of cards? Very bad. Everybody who ever belonged to the Baathist Party in Iraq? Whoa doggy! Let's be a bit more discerning than that, okay?

Why? We deny ourselves access to a whole generation of leadership in the government and military that could and should be exerting local governmental control across Iraq todayónot just some rag-tag collection of exiles whose main virtue is lack of recent time in country. Hell, we've got lotsa that sort of credentials ourselves!

In this GWOT, we wage war against individualsónot against a region, not against a religion, and hopefully not against everyone forced into service in some now-dead regime. When we de-access partners we otherwise could use through such poor decisions and through such imprecise language, we de-access outcomesópure and simple.

Rehabbing Iraq is like rehabbing the Gap in general: like the song says, "open the door and let 'em in."