O'HANLON: Lessons of the surge

The surge was required because the initial strategy of going into Iraq was so flawed the country devolved to chaos. Had Bush/Cheney/Rumsfeld/Wolfowitz listened to General Shinseki Iraq wouldn't have seen the terror they did and America wouldn't have lost the thousands of sons and daughters they did.

Excellent article and surprising that such good thought would come from the Brookings Institution.

BannedMonique: Ah, didn't get to see the wisdom you graced us with until after I posted below, but once again I disagree with you. Gen. Shinseki was Bill Clinton's man. One of the biggest DOD problems was infighting among our top brass and the Sec. It showed and you bought the wrong side's story. Most of the blame goes to the media and its rooting for the enemy to win over the past years. Most of America has been swayed by that. Thank goodness our president is a man of principle and his will has been victorious in Iraq, thanks to our superb and flexible military, as well as here in the U.S., but Americans have been blinded by ultra left's unfounded anit-Bush hysteria, perhaps as you are.

As the President stated when proposing the Surge: "the overall objective is to establish a unified, democratic federal Iraq that can govern itself, defend itself, and sustain itself, and is an ally in the War on Terror. The surge would provide the time and conditions conducive to reconciliation among political and ethnic factions." If this, in fact, the objective - reasonable persons can state the objective has not been met. Reasonable people can also question the objective in the first place - "why should American blood be shed for a pissant little country which wouldn't shed its own blood (except when killing each other) to overthrow Saddam". People should ask themselves if they would send their own sons and daughters to Iraq. I, for one, think the Surge was a flawed strategy as well as a strategy which has not met its objectives.

Forrest is betraying his elitist and prejudiced ignorance. After Op Desert Storm, the Shia and the Kurds rose up against Hussain, but we left them twisting in the wind, just as we did the Contras in Nicaragua. Plenty of Iraqi blood was shed in these attempts. Our losses have been minuscule. Every other war of this magnitude has cost us multiplied thousands more casualties. You libs whine that even one death is a tragedy that is not worth it, which shows your sniveling lack of backbone. Yes, every loss is a tragedy, but loss es are very often worth the result; in the case of the surge, and the entire Iraqi war, the cause of freedom has been well served by those who CHOSE to put themselves in harms way. BTW: you are not the only one who, contrary to all evidence, believes the Surge is a mistake; your candidate, the Communist Organizer is equally benighted.

Hey ScottVA A couple of rebuttal points (I'll use small words so you can follow). 1. "Our losses have been miniscule" - tell that to the families of the 4,000 American dead, or the 100,000 Iraq dead; or the hundreds of thousands whose lives have been crippled by the war. 2. The soldiers who enlisted thought they were going to war to defeat an enemy of the U.S. - one who would use weapons of mass destruction against us - obviously, this was not the case. If anyone said "join up so we can do a regime change in Iraq" - the response would have been "up yours". 3. "the cause of freedom has been well served" - I wish it were true, but it's not. 4. You did not mention the objectives of the Surge - I assume you agree with them. Do you honestly feel these objectives have been met? Anyway, it's fun commenting here at the Washington Times.

Saddam and his sons no longer rule Iraq with an iron fist. Progress has been made. Not only has the Surge met its goals, it has exceeded them. For the first time in Iraqi history a truly democratic government represents the ethnic distribution of the nation equitably. The Baathist regime is no longer a threat to his neighbors, as detestable as some of them are. My best wishes to the Iraqi people and their new government…