Coitus interruptus - unsatisfactory but necessary

Exit Strategy
How to disengage from Iraq in 18 months
Barry R. Posen Boston Review


" The war is at best a stalemate; the large American presence now causes more trouble than it prevents. We must disengage from Iraq—and we must do it by removing most American and allied military units within 18 months. Though disengagement has risks and costs, they can be managed. The consequences would not be worse for the United States than the present situation, and capabilities for dealing with them are impressive, if properly employed.

"Some people argue that the United States should disengage because the war was a mistake in the first place, or because it is morally wrong. ..... My case for disengagement is different: it is forward-looking and based on American national interests. The war as it has evolved (and is likely to evolve) badly serves those interests. A well-planned disengagement will serve them much better by reducing military, economic, and political costs."

Essential reading if you want to grasp what has happened - and will happen now in Iraq. Although no-ne yet, seems to grasp that the essential objective in the invasion , that the maintenance of the global US oil dollar hegemony remains intact after Saddam got to sell his oil in Euros and bank it in Paris. SSShhhhh....

On Sunday 4th I pointed out that John Rauch had published in WaPO "All over but the Pullback" , which had already been forecast here. Now the big boys in Boston are jumping on Postman's bandwagon. Posen speaks from a deep, deep knowledge of the mil/political climate and it is unlikely that his views are in any way those of a maverick.

Well MIT anyway. Barry R. Posen is Ford International Professor of Political Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he is affiliated with the Security Studies Program. He is on the Executive Committee of Seminar XXI, an educational program for senior military officers, government officials and business executives in the national security policy community.

A recent article is “Command of the Commons: The Military Foundation of US Hegemony,” International Security, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Summer 2003). Prior to to MIT, he taught at Princeton University.

Like deep ocean waves the movers and the shifters of opinion are at work preparing the US public (i.e the ones that vote in the upcoming mid-term elections) for a pullout - a sort of military coitus interruptus.