Lugar: You Can’t Tread Water in a Counterinsurgency
Jul 31, 202062.9K Shares2M Views
If Richard Lugar (R-Ind.) was a plate of food, he’d be Cream of Wheat. But he asked a question that really needed to have been asked in the Armed Services Committee: Doesn’t having 140,000 troops in Iraq for the forseeable future strongly suggest that at some point we’ll need more? That is, the longer a provocative, occupying army remains in place, inevitably the enemy will adjust to its presence, and politics will further deteriorate, and the conflagration will get worse — potentially overwhelming those 140,000 troops. Won’t they need relief? And if so, what are the flash points worth watching out for?
Petraeus is a brilliant general. What he doesn’t do is set national strategy. But what his recommendations imply directly raises that strategic concern. And he couldn’t really answer it. “If the progress is put into jeopardy, or other factors conspire against it, Al Qaeda regaining lost ground and influence, perhaps using that as a base to expand…”
Lugar interrupted to ask if there’s sufficient force in place to deal with it. “We have the forces that we need right now,” Petraeus replied. “We have our teeth into their jugular and we need to keep it there. In Mosul and Ninewa province…” This is the first time Petraeus has sounded like Donald Rumsfeld. We’ve been told today that Mosul is the final redoubt of Al Qaeda. You know how many U.S. troops are in Mosul? A lonely brigade. That’s it. There is no prospect of U.S. reinforcement — only from Iraqi soldiers of uncertain capability and, indeed, allegiance. This is what you want to send against your main enemy’s last redoubt?
It’s not Petraeus’s fault. It’s Bush’s. But Petraeus can’t say he needs more forces, lest he sound like Westmoreland saying that he’s made huge strides in the war effort, but nevertheless needs tens of thousands more troops. Yet Petraeus knows better than anyone else in that hearing room that counterinsurgency is many things — but it’s nevera static effort.
Paula M. Graham
Reviewer
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