Iraq | The Week

So this is what victory looks like, said Daniela Deane in The Washington Post. This week, President Bush finally laid out a detailed plan for winning the war in Iraq, with a three-stage plan to stabilize the country after its Dec. 15 elections. The first step, outlined in a 35-page document titled 'œOur National Strategy for Victory in Iraq,' is to pour more resources into Iraq's army and police forces, so they can relieve U.S. troops of the lion's share of the fighting. 'œIraqi forces have made real progress' in recent months, Bush said in a major policy speech, and are 'œincreasingly taking the lead' in defeating the insurgents. He offered no timetable for the handover but said he would defer to his commanders on the ground. 'œIf they tell me that the Iraqis are ready,' Bush said, 'œand that we'll be able to bring some Americans home, I will do that.'

Read between the lines, said Fred Kaplan in Slate.com. In 'œa mind bog of sheer cynicism,' Bush is laying the groundwork to start withdrawing U.S. troops in time for the 2006 congressional elections. Just a few weeks ago, the president and his chief bomb-thrower, Vice President Dick Cheney, were depicting advocates of withdrawal as cowards and possibly even traitors. But the American public is thoroughly weary of this war, and the administration is now signaling that victory is just a few trained Iraqi battalions away. Earlier this week, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that the current deployment of 160,000 troops wouldn't be needed 'œthat much longer.' Funny: Just a few months ago, military experts said that just one of the Iraqi battalions was combat-ready. Bush, though, wants to frame the pullout on his terms, knowing full well that 'œnobody in Congress is going to call for a halt, much less a reversal, of the withdrawal.'

Pulling out too soon would be a terrible mistake, said Democratic Sen. Joseph Lieberman in The Wall Street Journal. The situation in Iraq is far better than media reports would lead you to believe. Two-thirds of the country is largely peaceful, stable, and optimistic about the future. The war in Iraq now pits just 10,000 Sunni holdouts and terrorists against 27 million people 'œwho want to live lives of freedom, opportunity, and prosperity.' We'll need to keep a sizeable force there for years, until the insurgency is defeated. Victory will require getting tough with the Sunnis, said Ralph Peters in the New York Post. The Bush administration's biggest mistake thus far was trying to appease the Sunnis in their power struggle with the majority Shiites. 'œBy favoring one side, then the other, we've only deepened Iraqi factionalism.' We have to let the majority Shiites run the country, and use overwhelming force to prove to the Sunnis that rebellion is fruitless.

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Roger Owen

The Boston Globe