Getting Iraqis to Take Over

Washington Post ^ | 08/27/03 | George F. Will

[Pokey78]

It is sad yet stirring to say. With a realist's melancholy sense of the human cost of things, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz is saying it:

Part of the good news out of Iraq -- good news obscured by recent bad news, and sometimes mistaken for unalloyed bad news -- is that the deaths, including of 62 Americans, caused by hostile action in Iraq since major combat operations ended include the deaths of almost 50 Iraqis. They died, Wolfowitz says, as exemplary pioneers of Iraq's progress up from tyranny, while working with coalition forces to secure public order and create civil society.

Wolfowitz says such casualties are plain, and stirring, evidence of -- and an unavoidable consequence of -- a desirable development; the slowly growing willingness and capacity of Iraqis to take responsibility for their nation's recovery. The capture last week of "Chemical Ali," Saddam Hussein's cousin, suggests that U.S. commanders in Iraq are receiving intelligence from Iraqis willing to take risky initiatives for a better tomorrow.

[Utah Girl]

Excellent article. George Will is spot on, as usual.

[wretchard]

The US has more than 60,000 Iraqis under arms in less than 4 months from victory and that number will push 100,000 soon, as we activate the Iraqi intelligence and the new Army. Those Iraqis are far more valuable than UN Blue Helmets -- Pakistanis, Uruguayans and Nigerians -- who must be flown in, rotated out, taught the language and oriented in the culture. Unlike the Blue Helmets, the Iraqis will shoot. Because you are looking for complementary capabilities, there comes a point where you prefer an Iraqi brigade to the French Foreign Legion, or even an additional US brigade, because that's a better mix than a pure foreign security force.

There are some liberals who want the US to deploy 500,000 men to Iraq -- every operational brigade in the services -- and do it under the command of the United Nations.

[squidly]

Yup. The same people who think that you fix the education system by throwing money at it think that you solve this problem by throwing troops at it. They are right and wrong at the same time. We do need to throw troops at it.... Iraqi troops.

[McGavin999]

When history looks back at this, future generations will be totally amazed at what was accomplished in so short a time. It's hard to believe that now because of all the media spin, but looked at through the dispassionate eye of history this will be nothing short of a miracle.