The Jim Baker-led Iraq Study Group is getting all the attention — especially since one of its members is poised to become the next Defense Secretary. But there’s a second influential commission looking at new directions for Iraq, Inside the Pentagon reminds us: “A small group of officers assembled by Gen. Peter Pace, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, [and] expected to conclude its work in December… Some observers anticipate the recommendations will call for a dramatic change of course in the Persian Gulf nation and perhaps in the war on terrorism more broadly.”
Among the top ranks of the military, there is a growing consensus that more U.S. troops are needed to crush the insurgency and cultivate the support of an Iraqi public that is not yet convinced American forces will win, a number of well placed sources say.
But that view is increasingly out of step with lawmakers and the American public, where pressure is mounting to establish “benchmarks” for the withdrawal of some or all U.S. troops.
Back at the Pentagon, Paces group of colonels is taking a wide-ranging approach, examining holistically the strategies for securing Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as fighting the broader war on terror, defense sources tell ITP.
The results may prove surprising, some say. The Pace group is headed toward making some bold and unconventional recommendations — ones that may demand consensus across party lines as Bush struggles to work with newly empowered Democrats in Congress. The president and a variety of lawmakers have staked out opposing positions on troop levels for Iraq and what their objectives and strategy should be.
If the various political factions dig in their heels on their respective concepts for Iraq, they might yet all agree on one thing: that the Pace recommendations are politically naive and dead on arrival, some officials warned.
Another risk Pace faces is that the new defense secretary or members of Congress will cherry-pick only some of his recommendations for implementation, potentially leaving the military with a watered-down version of a new strategy that would only work if carried out in toto, sources said.
President Bush, for the time being at least, says he’s “open to any idea or suggestion that will help us achieve our goals of defeating the terrorists and ensuring that Iraq’s democratic government succeeds.”
hello folks. always assuming that DefenseTech is read by persons who may actually have the ear of the Pentagon and Administration; here’s a suggestion: divide Iraq in thirds, let there be a Kurd nation, a Sunni nation, a Shite nation. allow/assist each to develop their own “democratic” process of government. allow these three nations to fight out their own civil wars, as they may. get our own military out ASAP. Substitute massive foreign aid dollars (cheap compared to military costs).
any takers? wanna make book?
There is no way any solution to Iraq that involves an independent Kurdish state will work. Turkey will never go for it, and may well invade if such a state were created. We might be able to wash our hands of it and say, “Not our problem,” if it came to that, but that would be an incredibly crappy way to reward the only ethnic group in Iraq that is genuinely allied with America and has a reasonably stable, functional society.
Besides, the Shiites and the Sunnis won’t go for any deal where the other bloc gets the oil lands.
A three way confederation with shared oil revenue is the only short term solution in Iraq. Turkey will just have to like it. It was a British Empire pretend state anyway. Sorry all of you Realists, the reorganization and a shift in the balance of power in the Middle East are required. Who knows how all the ethnic groups will re-shape the Middle East, but it will their choice this time. In my opinion, that is a good thing.
Edward,
Turkey isn’t going to be able to stop or do much at all about the inevitable advent of an independent Kurdish state in what was northern Iraq.
I served two years in the early 1990s 80’s and three between 1999 and 2002 based in Turkey. The Turkish military machine is not what it is cracked up to be. They very nearly lost the war against their own Kurds. They can’t defeat both Iraq’s Kurds and their own as well.
My opinion is that we have to achieve a more basic understanding of why terrorism and war in the first place. The following may seem simplistic at first, but I think it is brilliant. This blog is talking about the HIDDEN reasons behind the terrorism…http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=42555339&blogID=191349532