It's the Same One We've Had All Along

Here's a good, short article about the President's plan for Iraq. It points out the obvious, that the "new" plan is the same plan we've always had. And that's not necessarily bad.

The President of the United States, responding to criticism about a lack of strategy in Iraq, recently spelled out the U.S. strategy in a speech at the Naval Academy. The strategy was simple. Help train police and soldiers of the elected government. As more police and troops become available, fewer American troops will be needed to deal with rebellious minority Sunni Arabs. Eventually, American troops will be gone entirely. What's strange about this is that it has been the strategy since before Iraq was even invaded in early 2003. In fact, this has been American strategy for over a century. Such a strategy was successfully pursued in the Philippines and Cuba a century ago, and in many other places since; so what's going on here? Politics is going on here. It was in the interest of the President's opponents for it to appear that there was no strategy. It was in the interest of the media to go along with this "there is no strategy" charade, as it made for spectacular headlines, and breathless stories of a president mired in controversy and lost…

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