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SPECIAL REPORT: "Rethinking Iraq: The Way Forward," by Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek, 6 November 2006, p. 26.
Solid reasoning throughout. I especially like the comparison to the kissing-your-sister ending that was Korea in 1953. I've always thought Iraq would feel like that in the near term, only being treated with more kindness by history many years from now, when its place as the initial great battlefield in the Long War can be placed in some significant context.
Sad to say, but we were always slated--by temperament and by tradition--to suffer some sub-optimal outcome in Iraq. Our first time out of any new box seems predetermined in that way.
The system just wasn't ready for it and didn't want to be ready for it, nor was the public. Bush & Co. compounded all those errors of bias by being consistently incompetent in operational execution, even as the military has adapted itself reasonably well and still suffers from fighting under the worst strategic circumstances.
Fareed's option is well presented here: reduce and redeploy our troops and force the Iraqis toward some deal.
What is missing most here is more discussion on Iran. Fareed says, talk to them but nothing more. He wants Kurdistan secured but mentions nothing in the way of deals with Iran on that or to gain its useful role in mentoring the Shiia population in Iraq. He also makes no argument on Iran's WMD pursuit.
So the argument is Iraq-centric to a fault, in my mind. Still, accepting that bias, which BTW kills virtually every peace plan we ever dream up for the region, Fareed's overall presentation here is more solid than most, so worth a good read.
Still, I long for the great article on making some effort toward a regional security agenda and accompanying forum that brings together all the region's players and concerned outside great powers. I honestly believe that's the cover we need to forge an acceptable outcome in Iraq.
But absent a stinging Democrat win next week, I feel such an overarching approach is highly unlikely from this administration. It won't really talk and it won't really deal. So we won't really succeed.
Wrote my column for the weekend today. It's titled, "United we stood, but divided we'll stand taller."
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