“My conclusion was that it would be a mistake to send more troops to Baghdad,” said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine. “I think the sectarian violence there requires a political not a military solution.” If that is what your conclusion was then why aren’t you telling us what your conclusion is? Oh, OK, you meant to say ‘is’.

How can any reasonably intelligent person believe that the problems in Iraq can be solved purely politically? How can she think that the various factions in Iraq are going to negotiate credibly without some kind of forcing function? Diplomacy can’t function in chaos.

Without an outside contolling force, the only way out of internal chaos is for the competing factions to reach a standoff. A lot of time can pass and a lot of people can be killed in Iraq before that happens. As long as one faction believes it has the upper hand it won’t be willing to give up anything at the negotiating table. What the outside force does is punish the faction with the upper hand until it becomes willing to negotiate.

Obviously this is not going to work if the outside force is unable to inflict sufficient punishment on the internal faction. If that is the case then more outside force is needed. More outside force can be achieved either by adding resources or by using the existing resources more effectively. Greater effectiveness might be achieved by changes in the existing personnel, equipment, strategy, tactics and training. Adding resources means increasing the amount of personnel and equipment.

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I disdain Defense Department officials who say that sending more troops into Iraq will only result in more casualties. It seems to me that such a statement assumes that the additional troops will achieve no military objectives to be traded off against the additional casualties. If not that, then it suggests that the primary military objective in Iraq is to minimize casualties. Obviously this is not the case or we wouldn’t have any troops there. Minimizing casualties should always be an objective but it can never be the primary objective.

If I were President I would fire a Defense official who tells me that he or she can’t use additional resources when that official is not getting the job done.  Maybe that is what the President is doing now.