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Originally Posted by jorgelito
But what do you think should be done then? Adding more US troops? Making a real committment? We can't very well just let Iraq "go to pieces" can we? Is it really too late?
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If we had more troops to add, that might help. But sadly...short of severely compromising other commitments, we cannot. The post-"victory" period was critical...it was when we needed to quickly restore order, services, and set up a care-taker government.
Our incompetence in that moment, two long years ago, has created the space for the insurgency. With every passing moment, it gets more difficult to contain them. Now, i don't think we could pay the tab if we wanted to.
The current number of troops is not stabilizing the country. The number of attacks is still rising, and no substantial progress has been made in containing either international terrorism or sectarian tensions.
We do not have any more spare "boots on the ground." To increase troop levels will require either a draft or the removal of troops from another critical positions. Afganistan is in an especially precarious situation...Korea isn't much calmer these days.
As a nation, we lack the resolve to institute a draft, and recruiting has failed to produce a volenteer army big enough to do the job its being asked to do.
As unsettling and sorrowing a prospect as this is...this is my reasoning for saying that Iraq may be screwed beyond repair at this point in history.