Going Long

Pace's military commission is recommending:

The Pentagon's review of how to improve the situation in Iraq has outlined three basic options: Send in more troops, shrink the force but stay longer, or pull out, according to senior military officials.

Insiders have dubbed the options "Go Big," "Go Long," and "Go Home." The group conducting the review is likely to recommend a combination of a small, short-term increase in US troops and a long-term commitment to stepped-up training and advising of Iraqi forces, the officials said.

The military's study was commissioned by General Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It was conducted at a time when violence is causing Iraq policy to be reconsidered by both the White House and the congressionally chartered, bipartisan Iraq Study Group. Pace's effort will feed into the White House review, but military officials are operating independently.

I'm betting the ranking of these options puts the "Go Long" option at the very end. I'm of the opinion that is the only option that will lead to success and longer term security for the US.

"Go Big," the first option, originally contemplated a large increase in US troops in Iraq to try to break the cycle of sectarian and insurgent violence.

A classic counterinsurgency campaign, though, would require several hundred thousand additional US and Iraqi soldiers as well as heavily armed Iraqi police.

I'm wondering what "classic counterinsurgency campaign" they are thinking of. Personally, sounds like Vietnam before it turned to the "Go Home" option. Classically, this one is a failure unless it adds the "Go Long" option.

The group has devised a hybrid plan that combines part of the first option with the second one, called "Go Long." It calls for cutting the US combat presence in favor of a long-term expansion of training and advisory efforts. Under this mixture of options, which is gaining favor inside the military, the US presence in Iraq, currently of about 140,000 troops, would be boosted by 20,000 to 30,000 for a short period, the officials said.

The purpose of the increase, they said, would be twofold: to do as much as possible to curtail sectarian violence, and to signal to the Iraqi government and public that the shift to a "Go Long" option that aims eventually to cut the US presence is not a disguised form of withdrawal.

Even so, there is concern that such a radical shift in the US posture in Iraq could further damage the standing of its government. Under the hybrid plan, the short increase in US troop levels would be followed by a long-term plan to radically cut the presence, perhaps to 60,000 troops.

I suppose I should read the whole article before I start writing. I don't know where they will use all those extra troops, but if they do go into stomp mode in some key places, they might get some balance. I'm wondering what they plan, but then we won't know from what we get from the MSM.

Well, we can only see. I really hope they push strongly for political agreement from Maliki. If they go to hard they will hurt the elected government, and that will be a step back in a big way.