As reported by Fox News yesterday evening (on The Special Report with Brit Hume), the six fundamental elements of the “new way forward” are:

• Let the Iraqis lead
• Help Iraqis protect the population
• Isolate extremists
• Create space for political progress
• Situate the strategy in a regional approach
• Diversify political and economic efforts

Hmm.  Let’s see….

Let the Iraqis lead: Wow.  Now there’s a stinky proposition.  Lead the way to what, pray tell?  To the rear?  Judging by what we’ve seen so far, the Iraqi army and the Iraqi police couldn’t lead themselves out of a wet paper bag (much less a hostile fire situation).  I wonder how our American troops in Iraq feel about being “led” by a band of village idiots armed with machine guns and bullets?

Help Iraqis protect the population: This begs the question “protect them from whom?”  From the evil American invader/occupier, or from themselves?  I don’t get it.  If there’s one thing the Iraqis have proven over the past four years, it’s the fact that they are their own worst enemy.

Isolate extremists: That’s easy enough.  All you have to do there is establish a cordon around the whole damn country.  Then you weed out the children, the elderly and the infirm.  What you have left is a bagful of extremists!

Create space for political progress: You’re gonna have to sack the entire “unity government” if you expect political progress.  And that means you have to hold brand new elections.  But since you’ve already rounded up all the extremists, who would be left to vote?  Oh, yeah.  I forgot the children, the elderly and the infirm….

Situate the strategy in a regional approach: Fox News says this means that we must “involve Iraq’s neighbors as much as possible”.  Well, we already know that the administration doesn’t intend to do a whole bunch of talking with Iran and Syria, so we can’t really “involve” them.  That leaves Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.  “Involving” those countries could be an interesting proposition, indeed.  Turkey isn’t exactly neutral on the Iraq situation, for example.  If they had their druthers, they’d enter northern Iraq right now and start killing Kurds.  As for Saudi Arabia?  They’ve already let the Bush administration know that if the U.S. leaves Iraq, they’re going to jump into the fray on the side of the Sunnis.  And the Kuwaitis?  I don’t know where they stand on the deal.  The majority of Kuwaitis are Sunni, but it was a Sunni-led Iraq who invaded them in 1990.  (The Kuwaitis were apparently outraged when certain Arab nations began to lionize Saddam Hussein following his execution.  So who knows what side they’d come down on?)  Finally, there’s Jordan.  Maybe we could talk to them?  Maybe?  Hey, King….

Diversify political and economic efforts: Just make sure the people doing the “political and economic diversification” are provided with armored vehicles, helmets and flak vests….

Really, I’m all for the surge in operations.  It’s just that I’m totally opposed to allowing Iraqis to lead anything when the security of U.S. personnel might be at risk.  And I don’t think that 20,000 additional troops are enough, either.

But then, what do I know?  By the way, I’m inherently skeptical of any proposition that can be easily condensed into a small number of bullet statements.  (As the administration seems to have done with this one.)

Technorati Tags: six fundamental elements, new way forward, Iraqis, Isolate, extremists, political progress, regional approach, Diversify, political, economic, Iraqi army, Iraqi police, hostile fire, American troops, village idiots, armed, machine guns, bullets, invader, occupier, worst enemy, cordon, children, elderly, infirm, unity government, new elections, Iraq’s neighbors, Iran, Syria, Turkey, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Kurds, Bush administration, U.S., Sunni, Arab, nations, Saddam Hussein, execution, armored vehicles, helmets, flak vests, surge, operations, U.S. personnel, risk, additional troops

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