What has to be done

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There are really only two choices: (1) Win the war in Iraq, or (2) accept defeat. And don't deceive yourself: That's the debate that has now begun.

Of course, politicians being politicians, "defeat" is never called "defeat." Diplomatic sleights-of-hand are preferred instead. People talk of "internationalizing" the conflict, of turning it over to the United Nations or NATO, of empowering free Iraqis to fight on their own against the Ba'athists and their foreign Jihadi allies. Serious people know that if the world's only superpower can't win this war, no lesser power will be up to the task.

If we accept defeat in Iraq -- as we accepted defeat 10 years ago in Somalia and 20 years ago in Lebanon -- we should not deceive ourselves about what will follow.

The atrocities of September 11 were the consequence of Washington's earlier decisions not to seriously fight back against the terrorists who had attacked us again and again in the 1980s and '90s. Surrender in Iraq will save the lives of some soldiers today. But it will cost the lives of civilians tomorrow. How many, no one can predict.

If we make up our mind to win, what do we have to do? Quite a lot.

Although Pentagon planners undoubtedly have been thinking about the challenges posed by "low-intensity conflicts" for years, it appears their Iraq battle plan has not survived contact with the enemy. Battle plans seldom do.

After toppling Saddam Hussein, President Bush did predict that Iraq would remain a "dangerous" and "difficult" place. But the enemy's strength -- and his ability to play the Western media like a violin -- was obviously underestimated.

Surely, our military planners knew there were thousands of enemy combatants whom we had not managed to kill or capture. Surely, they knew that those combatants had ample stores of weapons and cash. Surely, they knew that Syrian dictator Bashar Assad had sworn to turn Iraq into "another Beirut" and that preventing Iraq from becoming free and democratic also would be a foreign policy goal of Saudi Arabia, Iran and several other countries in the region.

And surely, they must have known that we had inadequate intelligence networks set up within Iraq. That could only mean that it would be difficult for our troops to find the terrorists. By contrast, it would be simple for the terrorists to find our troops.