Letter to the Editor: Real Politics, Real War
CNAS Author: Dr. Colin H. Kahl
Original Post: Letter to the Editor: Real Politics, Real War
Type: Op-Ed
March 17, 2008 — Colin Kahl, assistant professor; Security Studies Program - Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University; Washington
Michael O'Hanlon's recent commentary "Reality and the Iraq war" rightly emphasizes that the greatest imperative to change in Iraq is in trying to animate Iraqi political action. Oddly, though, he slights the fact that the most effective tools for achieving this have been proposed by someone O'Hanlon spends considerable time criticizing: Barack Obama (The Forum, Tuesday).
O'Hanlon's "reality" should include these facts:
* Obama does not endorse abandoning Iraq. He argues for redeploying U.S. troops leading combat operations, while leaving a residual troop presence in the country to conduct counterterrorism missions and to protect our embassy and civilian reconstruction workers. Hillary Clinton has identified a similar set of residual missions.
* Obama thinks we should leave forces in Iraq to train and advise the Iraqis but only if the Iraqi government moves toward political accommodation. Aid to the Iraqi security forces ranks among our most important leverage points with the Iraqi government. Unlike Clinton or John McCain, Obama wants to calibrate that assistance to gain leverage — very much along the lines of the "conditional Democratic approach" O'Hanlon suggests.
* O'Hanlon argues that "Iraqi leaders need to feel pressure to deliver." In this context, Obama's goal of removing U.S. combat forces within 16 months of becoming president would signal to Iraqi political leaders that they must make the tough political compromises necessary to hold Iraq together. Neither Clinton nor McCain has offered as clear a signal.
There is no military solution to the war in Iraq, only a political one. As O'Hanlon admits, the Bush administration's "open-ended" commitment has not produced Iraqi political accord.
It is therefore imperative that our presidential candidates signal that a new accountability will reign.
Topic(s): Iraq
Project(s): Iraq
People: Dr. Colin H. Kahl
