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There are magical cities, and Washington DC is one of them. Magic is the ability to make things that exist disappears, and to create out of thin air something that seems so real. This is Washington DC our beloved capital.In the process of magic the talented men and women of the trade use tools; it can be a big hat, a wide sleeve or the media in case of the free world capital. No sane magician would attempt to hide a tractor; he might instead get your attention away.
Our tractor or elephant in the room is the Iraq war, we cannot hide it, we cannot dress it up, but sure, a talented magician can divert our attention. Instead of looking at the tractor, we would start debating if it is our wild imagination or it is real. In other words, the tractor is not there, we just think it is.
In the case of the Iraq war, we are not loosing the defeaters think we are!
In the world of magic a trick can go on for five or ten minutes, if it is really bad magician the trick can go on for two or three years!
However, after sometime the audience will either figure out the trick, or get tired of watching all together. At this critical point of time the magician has to come up with something new, and if he does not the game will be over and the hat will stay empty.
We are at this critical point, the president for the first time ever admitted that we are not winning. This statement by the president does not mean we are loosing we are at stateless state so we are neither winning nor losing.
In fact, I am not interested in discussing the past. We are up to our ears in a war that went on for too long, and we paid what seems to any reasonable person a huge price from our young, our treasury and our standing in the world. The history will judge the war someday as our president would like to think in his favor, and none of this is my major concern
As our magical establishment in our magical city shift gears towards the new strategy in Iraq, we witnessed over the last two month the birth of the new rules of the game, and this is what concerns me the most.
On November 8 and after the election results, the resignation of the defense secretary, the consolatory comments by the president and the house chair elect, I was optimistic. When we received the Iraq study group recommendation, I became jubilant.
However, over the last few weeks we started hearing more about the new strategy, which began with a congress committed to a complete withdrawal of our troops, and culminated over the last few days with a plan for temporary surge in the troop level.
This gradual progress or reversal for that matter went through multiple stages starting with more active role for the Iraqi government in the "Maliki is the man for the job" statement by the president. Then we heard that the commanders on the ground reject troop increase but the foot soldiers support it. Now it is a commitment to double the number of American troops in Baghdad to defeat the insurgency.
I strongly believe that withdrawing the American troops at this point of time is impossible, but for reasons other than the ones stated by the administration. Regardless of the moral issues which cannot be ignored, it is unacceptable risk to leave the strategic gulf area in such disarray, and if we need a proof Afghanistan is a compelling one, where the disarray produced a fertile ground for what became September 11.
The real dilemma is the fact that no military solutions exists for Iraq by almost all accounts.
So, unless we introduce a comprehensive package addressing employment, political and civil rights as well as security the snowball effect will continue. In addition, Iraq does not exist in vacuum, and unless other countries in the region have interest in stabilizing Iraq, they will continue to capitalize on bogging down the US in this war.
However, increasing or decreasing the troop level is not, and should not be the topic of discussion. The other components of the strategy are what we need to question and demand.
Are we about to see the new magic trick? Is the trick to get our attention on twenty thousand or thirty thousand, instead of a comprehensive plan?
Soon, we will all find out!
