Charting the Way Forward in Iraq

Larry Johnson, No Quarter

The mess in Iraq is reflected by the policy confusion that now reigns in the United States. The supposed salvation lying withing the findings of the Baker/Hamilton Iraq Study Group has not materialized. In fact, the Baker/Hamilton study was dead on arrival and really did little to address the military reality on the ground in Iraq. We really shouldn't be too hard on Baker and Hamilton because there is no clear philosophy or strategy dictating what we should do in Iraq.

I'm currently working at a U.S. military base directly and heavily invovled in the Iraq operation. I am stunned by the lack of consensus even within the military about what is going on in Iraq and what we should do. As in Washington there are folks who believe we need more troops and folks who believe the time to pull out has come. The only area of consensus is that things are going poorly in Iraq and we need to do something different.

More