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The Mess We Left Behind

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A temporary surge of troops will make no difference -- except to the Americans and Iraqis who will be killed. Increased training also will make no difference. What the Iraqi military and police need is not just technical skill, but loyalty to a viable central government that is nowhere in sight.

The surge will be reversed. The military force left behind to protect the president's "provincial reconstruction teams" will be drawn down to a bare minimum, further increasing the dangers for the Americans who remain.

Our benchmarks won't be met. As the situation deteriorates, whatever remains of a central government in Baghdad will be even less willing or able to control centuries of sectarian hatreds. The civil war will spiral out of control, giving us the justification we need to get out, blaming the Iraqis for the mess we've left behind.

But the world will know whose mess it is.

graham@giraffe.org

John A. Graham, a former Foreign Service officer, served in Vietnam in 1971-72.

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