Seeking: Clarity on Iraq

President Bush's cliche-ridden rejoinder to Cindy Sheehan is, as David Frum puts it, Another Lost Opportunity. As a point of comparison, check out an article by Andrew F. Krepinevich, Jr. in this month's Foreign Affairs called simply, How to Win in Iraq.

Summary: Because they lack a coherent strategy, U.S. forces in Iraq have failed to defeat the insurgency or improve security. Winning will require a new approach to counterinsurgency, one that focuses on providing security to Iraqis rather than hunting down insurgents. And it will take at least a decade.

Such clarity would become the President. Have a look at what Wes Clark has to say, too. He sounds a similar bell in his recently released plan Before It's Too Late in Iraq.

Both authors make points that are painfully obvious, even from way up here in the cheap seats. To pull out now would compound the original error of invading. If we hope to achieve anything before we are forced out either by a loss of support from the American public or through the continuing incompetence of our elected leadership we need to begin to employ all of the tools at our disposal - Military, Political, Diplomatic - in a manner much more consistent with the lessons learned by other imperial nations waging wars against entrenched insurgencies. But if our elected leadership cannot or will not begin to clarify and act on a winning strategy - we must not send more soldiers to die.