WP, Robin Wright: Pres's 'Strategy for Victory' Does Not Address Problems

[DeepModem Mom]

(NOTE: Not an opinion piece -- the article appears in the news section.)

President's 'Strategy for Victory' Does Not Address Problems
By Robin Wright
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, December 1, 2005; Page A21


President Bush's "strategy for victory" catalogues progress in Iraq over the past 32 months, but also omits or glosses over complications, problems and uncertainties in the most ambitious U.S. military intervention since Vietnam.

Analysts agreed with Bush that a politically motivated withdrawal could embolden extremists to believe the United States will "cut and run in the face of adversity"-- and risk the implosion of a strategic oil-rich country. But they disagreed with key assessments made by the administration on Iraq's military, on how important the U.S. mission in Iraq is to promoting democracy in the broader Middle East, and how much of Iraq has been rebuilt.

Little is new in the 35-page document, titled "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq," which covers three broad fronts: security, political development and economic issues. The interpretation it yields depends heavily on viewing the glass half-full rather than half-empty -- and doing so in defiance of daily suicide bombings, abductions or deaths. Unspoken is the critical element of the timing of the strategy's release....

***

On security, Bush said more than 120 Army and police battalions are in the field -- about a third "in the lead" -- in a huge leap from 18 months ago, when the Pentagon junked its initial approach to training and started over.

But the rising numbers mask lingering Iraqi weaknesses and have not curbed insurgent attacks. "There's been an increase in the number of Iraqis in training, but more Americans are dying and violence is increasing," said Lawrence Korb, a Reagan administration Pentagon official now at the Center for American Progress....


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/30/AR2005113002255.html?sub=AR