Biden at Brookings

Some conservative commentators think that Senator Biden’s speech at the Brookings Institution on Tuesday was overly political and negative. I wonder if they have read it. Biden seems to me an American who really wants us to succeed in Iraq. I’ve long held that the way to success is:

• Acknowledge your problems


• Figure out a strategy to overcome these problems


• Measure the success of your strategy and be prepared to change if the strategy is not working.

And Biden was taking the first two steps – problem acknowledgement and planning – and laying out a unit of measure for the third step.

Some illustrations of the problem:

• Only 3 of the 107 Iraqi battalions being trained are completely independent of our troops and another 27 are on the verge. 77 are not capable of acting on their own or in concert with us.


• Only $6 billion of the $18.4 billion authorized for reconstruction in 2003 has been spent, almost two years later and 40% of that has been spent not on reconstruction but on Iraqi security forces.


• Sewage is all over the place.


• The American public is losing faith in the war.

It is not enough for Biden to acknowledge the problem. It is imperative that the Administration do so and let the people know that they realize America has a problem. To quote Biden, “Tell them the truth, tell them what you need, tell them how hard it will be and they, if they believe you’re leveling with them, will give you the resources to have a shot at getting it done.”

Biden thinks we need to get results in four areas – security, governance and politics, reconstruction and burden-sharing. He feels we should accept the offers of help that have come from France, Germany and NATO and make sure that the pledges of $13 billion in aid made in 2003 come through.

The recommendation that has caused the most consternation is the establishment of benchmarks and the periodic reporting of progress towards those benchmarks. A basic management axiom is “You can’t manage if you don’t measure”. I know this is the world of politics, not business, but common sense applies in both spheres. Let’s hope our government starts using a little common sense.