A Suggestion on Iraq
There was a proposal in an essay in the Wall Street Journal yesterday (can't find it online or I'd link to it) on Iraq which I found interesting. To summarize, the authors proposed embedding five times as many U.S. troops in Iraqi police and army units as we are currently. They cite numerous historical examples of how this strategy works much better as a force multiplier and as a builder of long term strength. As of now, we are doing small amounts of embedding, with most patrols either done by Iraqis with U.S. as support only, or U.S. - only patrols in crazy areas like Ramadi. This policy is not a failure, but the authors make the point that we could be doing much better. Best of all, they say that if we did this we could cut the U.S. presence in Iraq by about half very quickly, while maintaing a more effective presence on the ground than we currently have.
posted by JM @ 7:25 PM
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