A surge of troups for Iraq - lessons from Hezbollah?

[Huckleman2000]

A surge of troups for Iraq

The trial balloons coming from the Texas White House in Crawford seem to indicate that Bush's 'new' plan for Iraq will involve a surge of troops shipped to Iraq [on the order of 20,000?]. These troops will go through neighborhoods, clearing them of insurgents, and then staying behind with infusions of cash and other rewards for Iraqis to come in and do clean up, building new infrastructure, so that the neighborhoods have an involvement and stake in maintaining their liberated status. This will prevent the 'whack a mole' experience, where 'cleared' areas [such as Fallujah] revert to hornet's nests as soon as troops leave.

Sound like a plan?

 

[Huckleman2000]

Yoiks! 20+ people on, and no one even willing to take a look?
Sorry for sticking the hot poker in the eye.

I changed the subject line to something a bit less inflammatory, but it doesn't seem to have 'taken' - I don't know if that really works or not.

 

[Pure]

the man is looking for cover for withdrawal, as did Nixon.

the improvement from the 20K would only last as long as the 20K stayed there.

 

[Jenny_Jackson]

Didn't work for Johnson and Nixon either

 

[TE999]

Bag 'em and tag 'em.

Drop a bag o' dollars and move along.

To the planes and home.

Works for me.

Peace (in 2007).

 

[JamesSD]

They say an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.

The administration had no real post-occupation plan for Iraq. They seem to have truly believed they would have been greeted as liberators. The President had no idea of the complex history of bad blood between the various ethnic groups in Iraq before deciding to invade.

More importantly, intelligent, experienced generals were largely ignored. Anyone who disagreed with Rove and Company's pollyanna expectations of Iraq was removed from their position.

It's looking an awful lot like a quagmire at this point. Clearly we can't just pull out and leave a vacuum in the region. Yet how many more soldiers have to die because of Bush and Rumsfeld's mistakes? How many more tax payer dollars need to be flushed down the toilet? How bad does the anchor on the US economy have to get before we cut the chain?

Perhaps the time has come to admit that as a country we acted in error, and we need the UN's help in stabilizing Iraq. And maybe it is time to gradually withdraw, let Iraq stand or fall on it's own? It's a huge problem with no easy answers, and a situation we could have easily avoided altogether 3 years ago.