Apologies for an off-topic post, but this is an issue that
we've all been thinking about.

JoeSpareBedroom wrote:
I predict that we'll be out of there sooner than later.

Probably so. Unfortunate, IMHO, because we broke it and
really should try to glue thei pieces back together.


Bush-1 is now
involved (finally). Even if he's doing it just to save the family name from
ridicule, he's lacing various advisory groups (and the DOD) with a few sane
people from his time on the stage.

They're unlikely to come up with a long-term workable
solution (if indeed, one exists). The only way to really
solve this problem is with a time machine.

HOWEVER: my suggestion is that we make a large increase in
committed forces in Iraq, not reduce them. We should have
put half a million men there to start with, put 3/4 million
there now. Include large numbers of civil-works volunteers
like the Peace Corps. It's partly an issue of manpower,
partly an issue of putting so many Americans there, doing so
many undeniably good things, that the bad guys will lose all
traction.

1- put a big & powerful hi-tech armed force, with a lot of
intel resources, along the border of Iran & Syria. Seal it
off. If they complain, tough ****. As far as Syria is
concerned, we should have bombed a couple of their highways
& bridges already anyway.

2- Put a large civil-works effort underway, get the people
water & electricty, restore the living standard to what it
was before the invasion. Health care should be included in
this consideration. We should also put a large publicity
effort behind this.

3- Bring all the varying parties to the table, and figure
out a workable security force command so that you won't have
the state police devolving into Shia & Sunni militias. The
Soviet Union solved this problem, largely by making sure
that everybody served far from their home, and with as mixed
a bag of peoples as they could get speaking the same language.

4- get the international community involved. Turn the
military situation over to U.N. peacekeepers as soon as
practical, but also make sure there's enough U.S. muscle in
place that trouble can be quashed easily & quickly... and
make sure the bad guys know that.

5- figure out how to take awy the incentive for suicide
attacks. I don't really have any good ideas on this one, but
at least we can stop copying the Nazis and the Israelis.


.... spends more public time with Clinton
than with his own son (not surprising) - but there's probably a motive,
which any father would understand: His people are going to come up with a
plan that's at least semi-acceptable to all parties. Clinton, as a favor to
another ex-pres, will discreetly arrange for Democrats to make the final
plan appear to be Nookular Boy's idea.


That's politicking, which Clinton is a master of and Bush-2
has no clue about.

The thing is, from the perspective of President Bush and
Vice-President Cheney (and their cronies) the Iraq war has
been a big success. They have all made gazillions of dollars
and are probably wondering why the rest of the country is upset.

DSK