--Awesome U.S. firepower, concentrated on Iraqi insurgents and civilian bystanders for more than five years, had slaughtered countless thousands of Iraqis and had intimidated many others to look simply to their own survival.
Rehabilitation
However, by controlling the "successful surge" debate, the neocons rehabilitated themselves. And, not surprisingly, they then used their stronger position to push Obama into another "surge" for Afghanistan. Down the road, the neocons also have kept alive the possibility of even one more "regime change" war with Iran.
Significantly, too, the neocons have built powerful alliances with key commanders, such as Gen. David Petraeus, who sought the counsel of prominent neocon, Max Boot of the Council on Foreign Relations. Petraeus was nervous about some mild criticism of Israel that had been included in his prepared testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee.
As Petraeus hastened to stomp on any thought that he might be critical of Israel, he e-mailed Boot about how this contretemps could be managed. Earlier, Petraeus had invited Boot and fellow neocon think-tanker Frederick Kagan to tour the Afghan War zone, a trip that ended with a not-surprising recommendation for a "surge." [See Consortiumnews.com's "Neocons, Likud Conquer DC, Again."]
In a recent New York Times article about Petraeus voicing his opposition to any early Afghan withdrawal, the newspaper reported that the general "has imported some hands from his Iraq days to help him. " Frederick W. Kagan of the American Enterprise Institute -- one of the fathers of the surge and more recently a critic of the Afghan government -- has come to help."
If the Iraq War "surge," which saw about 1,000 U.S. troops killed (roughly one-quarter of the total), had not been regarded as a success, the Afghan War "surge" would have been a harder sell -- and it wouldn't be likely that neocons like Kagan would be getting the honor of being "imported" to Afghanistan.
Indeed, if the Iraq War were perceived as the strategic blunder that many critics consider it to be, then the entire neocon brain trust of Washington would have had trouble remaining the toast of the town, getting lucrative think tank jobs and being rewarded with prized op-ed space.
If the Iraq War were viewed as comparable to the Soviet miscalculation in Afghanistan a largely self-inflicted wound by a superpower there might even be some choice space in Washington power circles for those brave few who dared question the neocon wisdom during the Bush-43 administration.
Instead, the early history of the Iraq War is being written by the neocons and their allies -- perhaps not the victors in Iraq but surely the victors in Official Washington.
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