Asking America's Military: Build Nations By the Seat of Your Pants, Mostly;Year 5-ish of seven, at least, Strategic
WHAT WILL BE ASKED OF US, WHAT WON'T BE TOLD TO US? TAKE IV
Joe Sudbays' watchful eye catches that the Pentagon is setting up to paper the pundits next month, as the desire to get a lot of information out about Iraq comes to the forefront.
Despite all the added data, it's questionable whether information will emerge that addresses the basic questions, against the strategic backdrop that the US has been, for some time now, the key impediment to those Shia who seek to consolidate their political control (by any means?) after decades of being a majority-minority in Iraq:
- 1. The justification for the plus-up was that we needed to 'hold' areas in the clear-hold-build strategy. What percentage of key areas and what percentage of the overall country is now being adequately 'held' versus where it was three, four, and six months ago? What percentage is being held by Iraqi forces alone? In the areas held, how much has the unemployment rate gone down?
- 2. The progress against al-qaeda, in al-Anbar, etc., is wonderful - for the Iraqis. How do these local non-failures get consolidated at the National level? The return to civil society seems under attack from all sides - what are the signs of true hope for progress, such as exhaustion from (sectarian) fighting?
- 3. Has administration of Justice improved - are there groups watching the watchers (in particular, the Iraq Study Group items 50-61)
- 4. What are the options and their associated costs at this point?
