LOSING THE PEACE

I think it’s pretty obvious by now that the Pentagon has seriously misjudged the post-war situation in Iraq. The good news is that the administration seems to be responding, with more troops and more attention. 160,000 troops for a country the size of Iraq is not sufficient, certainly not in the short term. Shinseki was right in this respect; and Wolfowitz was wrong. There’s no scandal in this. War-plans are designed to be flexible. And now we need to be. For the war on terror to be successful, achieving stability and some measure of democracy in Iraq is an absolutely vital objective. It isn’t anti-Bush to say so. It’s precisely so that the president’s broad eight-year campaign against terror can succeed that Iraq must be successfully managed now. Before it slips out of our control. Does that mean naiton-building? You bet it does. So let’s build one, can we?