The Iraq War

Here is a list of ideas about the Iraq war from different people.

Greg Reason wants to divide Iraq into two states. He wants to divide it north with the Kurdish and south with the Shiite. Not a bad plan.

Here is Col. David Hunt's plan.

1. Fire Rumsfeld--that's been done already.
2. Fire at least two big generals.
3. Put a Special Forces officer in charge--I like that idea. He wants all the militias disbanded.
4. Bring home all the heavy U.S. divisions.
5. Arrest every corrupt official in the Iraqi Government and put them in jail.
6. Find out who is running the death squads inside the Iraqi Government, put them on trial and if found guilty execute them.
7. Leave three bases with a total of 50,000 U.S. troops in the north, central and southern parts of the country, and we continue to support the government with money, trainers and technicians.

Daniel Pipe's suggest "pulling coalition forces out of the inhabited areas of Iraq and redeploying them to the desert." According to him this "permits the American-led troops to carry out essential tasks (protecting borders, keeping the oil and gas flowing, ensuring that no Saddam-like monster takes power) while ending their non-essential work (maintaining street-level order, guarding their own barracks)."

Then there is the Iraq Study Group report. Reading this 160 page (yea, can you believe that) behemoth almost made my brain turn to oatmeal. There are 79 recommendations in this report! It almost sounds like they got together through ideas out and did not evaluate them. Basically, the group (made up of mostly retired bureaucrats--no military or foreign affair experts in the group) wants to create an Iraq International Support Group. Support group? Psychological support groups don't usually solve problems--they just give a person a way to vent their feelings to other people who share their particular problem. They don't solve problems because most don't have mental health professionals in the support group. Iraq does not need support now. It needs to become stabilized and secure.

The Libertarian Party wants to gradually move troops out of Iraq in increments of 11,600 per month. The party wants to redeploy 30,000 to other Middle Eastern countries. While the U.S. is withdrawing we should negotiate with Iraq nationalist groups not tied to Hussein's regime and start a direct-aid program with Iraq gov't to help them build their infrastructure.

Finally, we come to Senator Joe Biden's plan. He wants to "federalize Iraq in accordance with its constitution by establishing three largely autonomous regions - Shiite, Sunni and Kurd -- with a strong but limited central government in Baghdad." Not a bad plan.

There are probably more ideas than these but these are the ones I know about. Whatever plan is taken Iraq first has got to be stabilized ( probably using a plan like Col. David Hunt's). And any plan that directly involves the Iraqi gov't has to be approved by them. They have to live with it. What do you think?