Withdrawal a calamity? No, invading was the calamity

William M. Arkin on National and Homeland Security
Failure in Iraq? We've Already Failed
Washington Post

"Failure in Iraq at this juncture would be a calamity that would haunt our nation, impair our credibility, and endanger Americans for decades to come," Robert M. Gates said yesterday upon taking the oath to be Secretary of Defense.

Public service I guess is about ruined holidays and long hours, but as Bob Gates starts his exhausting marathon of briefings and meetings, will somebody tell this supposedly savvy Washington operator that the United States has already failed?

Gates has pledged to rely on the uniformed military's "clear-eyed advice" - his second mission is to repair civil-military relations - but after six years and three generations of four stars losing the Rumsfeld war, can the military step-up to the plate and reach beyond its honor bound compulsion to take the next hill to tell the new Secretary the honest truth: We long ago failed.

Train Iraqi forces. It sounds so reasonable, like "diplomacy" with Iran and Syria or Palestinian-Israeli peace, gosh darn, why didn't we just think of it earlier?

Here are some bullet points for the new Secretary:

• We've been trying for three years: From Lt. Gen. Dave Petraeus' Multi-National Security Transition Command-Iraq (MNSTC-I) - remember that organization in 2004? - through today's training "surge" already underway, we've been there.

(Continued, here.)