Selling Short

Mohammed Fadhil one of the two bothers who blog at Iraq the Model has an op-ed in today's Opinion Journal that again begs America not to abandon the Iraqi people. He describes what he sees as impossible conditions and expectations being set that set Iraq up for failure.

BAGHDAD–"The last chance." I hear these words a lot. So often, in fact, that it seems to be the common description for the new security plan. It's become so pervasive that I hear now that it's the last chance for Prime Minister Maliki, the last chance for President Bush, the last chance for Iraq to succeed as a democracy. It's almost as if the new plan was a coin that can be flipped only once and which carries victory on one face and doom on the other.

I think people who use this "last chance" idea are not helping Iraq or America or they are of the type of people who do not want to deal with the challenges seriously. This term has a tone of defeatism, it's as if Iraq was a totally lost case while in fact the huge change that's been happening in the form of replacing a totalitarian regime with a democratic one is a lengthy process that cannot be accomplished through military action alone; success has economic and social elements along with the military one in addition to international and regional cooperation. It is no wisdom to think of closing this file or abandoning it based on the results of one security operation.

It is unfair to demand the impossible from the coming operations; total eradication of terrorism and militias within months is a long shot because the violence in Iraq is a result of domestic and regional conflicts that are not limited to Baghdad and it is part of heavy legacy of mistakes and evil the Baath Era left.

I see that those who talk about last chances are in fact rushing failure in Iraq by putting a very high bar that is technically impossible to pass within months or a year.

Please read the whole thing. Mohammed describes what is possible and what can be achieved. There are reports out of Iraq today that large numbers of fighters from the Mahdi Army are being captured and detained. There are signs that some of the changed tactics are working. We cannot, as a nation, afford to lose this war. We cannot simply walk away.