Wednesday, December 12, 2007

A really long haul

Stephen Biddle argues that, although things seem to be getting better in Iraq, we're going to have to be there a long time if we want Iraq to be a reasonably peaceful nation.

His argument is that the war in Iraq is now a civil war, which, by definition, means that there is little or no trust between the parties. That being the case, only an outside force can enforce the peace which would be brought about by a series of cease-fire agreements across Iraq. The outside force is us. Hence, we should not plan on seeing many of the troops come home for a long time.

He does make a point. But, what is the cost of a long occupation in lives lost, dollars wasted and political capital spent?

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