A Disengagement Strategy?

from the Army War College, no less. The Strategic Studies Institute, housed at the War College, has an interesting article about a disengagement strategy re Iraq in this month's newsletter. The article concludes with a series of recommendations, a couple of the more interesting ones are:

• "The military and intelligence leaders must be painfully honest in addressing the question of when Iraqi security forces will be able to function without a coalition troop presence to prop them up.
• The viability of Iraqi units must be measured by a series of tough indicators, including real efforts to measure intangibles like morale and unit cohesion, as well as quantifying training and the distribution of weapons and equipment.
• As a last resort for preventing near-term civil war, the United States may have to swallow the bitter pill of allowing local militias to retain a significant and ongoing role in Iraqi politics....
• The United States needs to deemphasize thetoric that may cause Iraqi citizens to believe their government has been put in place to wage war on US enemies in the Muslim world... If Iraq is the 'central front' in the war on terrorism, then it is part of a campaign that mainstream Muslims view as including Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's actions against the Palestinians and Russian Presdent Vladimir Putin's campaign against Chechnya.
• All future wars should have carefully planned exit strategies based on something other than best case planning...."