Last night President Bush gave a speech outlining a new strategy for Iraq. Bush intends to add 21,000 troops to the approximately 135,000 that are already there. There are tons of pundits all over television and the net commenting on whether it is a good idea or not so I figured I’d throw in my two cents.
Regardless of whether you were for or against the war, we are in it, and since we are in it we have to do what is right for the U.S., Iraq and the region. I don’t believe that 21,000 troops will make a significant difference. If the U.S. is to do a troop increase it should be massive, 90,000-100,000 troops. The problem is we don’t have them. We don’t have the troops or the equipment necessary to send such a large force.
If we can’t send 100,000 and 21,000 is too small, what do we do? Senator Joe Biden and Leslie Gelb have a plan for three semi-autonomous regions divided by Sunni, Shia and Kurdish lines with a central government in Baghdad responsible for oil revenue and border security. This is an imperfect idea but when you are forced to choose between bad and worse, you choose bad. The war in Iraq has cost over 320 billion dollars, over 3000 American lives and who knows how many Iraqi lives. The Bush administration wants victory in Iraq but seems to have no idea what victory looks like.
It is so frustrating to think that there was a time when we could easily have said, “no troops, no war, simply avoid violence in Iraq and Afganistan.” Now, our government has placed us in a position where there is no easy answer. There is no going back…