New Strategy

The White House has posted a fact sheet of the main points of the President's new way forward in Iraq. Will it work? We can't afford to lose, so it has to.

The President's New Iraq Strategy Is Rooted In Six Fundamental Elements:

  1. Let the Iraqis lead;
  2. Help Iraqis protect the population;
  3. Isolate extremists;
  4. Create space for political progress;
  5. Diversify political and economic efforts; and
  6. Situate the strategy in a regional approach.
  • Iraq Could Not Be Graver – The War On Terror Cannot Be Won If We Fail In Iraq.  Our enemies throughout the Middle East are trying to defeat us in Iraq.  If we step back now, the problems in Iraq will become more lethal, and make our troops fight an uglier battle than we are seeing today.

Which exactly mirrors something that was said just yesterday in Lebanon. There is quite a lot more than just the quick summary. There are requirements for both the Iraqi government and for coalition forces.

UPDATE: Full text of the speech.

categories War | Gaius Wednesday, 10 January , 2007

  • By Jack, Wednesday, 10 January , 2007 @ 8:46 pm

    I am somewhat pleased, and even to a degree proud of what I heard outlined in the speech. I’ll have to examine the basic plan in greater detail but I am generally more optimistic than I was before the speech.

    I still have certain reservations about certain military aspects of the plan, however the political aspects are to a large degree out of our hands.

    Nevertheless I am at least partially reassured.
    Now we’ll have to see if action follows intent.

    However, I’m curious.
    What do you think of the plan, either overall or in detail?
    What about the basic military aspect?

  • By Gaius, Wednesday, 10 January , 2007 @ 8:56 pm

    I wasn’t able to watch the speech - the wife is sick and trying to commandeer the TV would be somewhat unsafe. I like the various bits attached right where they are, thank you. I’ll be catching the video of it and will study the written version and post about it.

  • By Jack, Wednesday, 10 January , 2007 @ 9:15 pm

    Fair enough.

    Hope the wife improves, that is a sticky wicket, when that happens.

  • By Gaius, Wednesday, 10 January , 2007 @ 9:25 pm

    It was a good speech. Just finished reading it.

Other Links to this Post

  1. Blue Crab Boulevard » Surge — Wednesday, 10 January , 2007 @ 9:58 pm

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