Politics

Iraq – Is it Really About “Success” and “Failure”?

I continue to be confounded by the White House Administration’s obsession with “winning” and/or “success” in Iraq. Depending on what the objectives for the mission in Iraq were/are – which I am still not clear on – it might be that we have ‘failed’ already. Since I have yet to see a clear (measureable) definition of the criteria for “success” I cannot measure how successful we have been. However, I did find some of what the President said in his address last night to be of help, as far as understanding how the President views ‘success’. I have quoted those particular remarks below. Click on the The President’s Address to the Nation – January 10, 2007 to see the entire transcript of the speech.

The President’s Address to the Nation – January 10, 2007

The consequences of failure are clear: Radical Islamic extremists would grow in strength and gain new recruits. They would be in a better position to topple moderate governments, create chaos in the region, and use oil revenues to fund their ambitions. Iran would be emboldened in its pursuit of nuclear weapons. Our enemies would have a safe haven from which to plan and launch attacks on the American people. On September the 11th, 2001, we saw what a refuge for extremists on the other side of the world could bring to the streets of our own cities. For the safety of our people, America must succeed in Iraq.

The most urgent priority for success in Iraq is security, especially in Baghdad. Eighty percent of Iraq’s sectarian violence occurs within 30 miles of the capital. This violence is splitting Baghdad into sectarian enclaves, and shaking the confidence of all Iraqis. Only Iraqis can end the sectarian violence and secure their people. And their government has put forward an aggressive plan to do it.

Our past efforts to secure Baghdad failed for two principal reasons: There were not enough Iraqi and American troops to secure neighborhoods that had been cleared of terrorists and insurgents. And there were too many restrictions on the troops we did have. Our military commanders reviewed the new Iraqi plan to ensure that it addressed these mistakes. They report that it does. They also report that this plan can work.

In the first paragraph, the “consequences of failure” are described. Each condition or scenario mentioned is a reality in some regions of Iraq today. So, that would mean that we have failed already – if you use those conditions as the criteria for success or failure.

In the second paragraph the President is stating that in his view, “security” is the “most urgent priority for success”. Security has been a critical issue in Iraq since the first days of the war, and in this regard there are absolutely no facts that I have seen that would support that we have any workable strategy for success in this area. We seem to keep trying to fix a social and political problem, that existed long before we ever entered the scene, with a military solution. Not only are we trying to apply an inappropriate solution to the problem, we are attempting to fix the wrong problem. Lack of security is a result, a symptom, of the underlying social and political issues that must be addressed before security is even a remote possibility.

My two cents – we need to change the mission and our definition of “success” and “failure”, then, perhaps, we can set some measureable goals and objectives that will lead us to a realistic solution.

© 2007 Life is an Ongoing Process.