Failure Is Not An Option
Jul 22, 2007 In The News, War On Terror
I meant to post this over a week ago. Not much has changed since, so the article is still relevant.
The directors of Redstate point out something that’s been bugging me in almost all mainstream media coverage of “the surge strategy” in Iraq since before implementation got underway:
The majority of Americans seem to have the same misconceptions about the relation between this “new†strategy and the so-called ‘Surge’ now as they did when it was first proposed. Allow us to provide some clarity: The ‘Surge’ – an increase in boots on the ground in Iraq – was never the strategy itself. [emphasis mine - Ed.] The increase in troop levels, requested by General Petraeus, was one of many components (or “strategic shifts,†as national security advisor Stephen Hadley called them in a January 29 Washington Post op-ed, in which he even then was attempting to clear up the misconception that the ‘surge’ was the strategy in its entirety) necessary to implement the sweeping new strategy, which radically altered our country’s course in Iraq and sought to solve the problems and shore up the weaknesses which four years of fighting had created and exposed.
In truth, the strategy itself was and is far more intricate and multi-pronged than a simple ‘surge’ in troops. The main focus of the new strategy has been the Baghdad Security Plan – a strategy focused on the capital city of Iraq, which seeks (with increased Iraqi and American forces) to permanently rid neighborhoods of terrorists and extremists and keep them that way, and to secure the population.
Lots more in the rest of the post; go have a read.
(Ask Me Weekend #6 answers coming as I get the energy and will to do them.)
