Surging to Success

Michael O'Hanlon gets a Washington Post op-ed to lay out his surprising view that the surge is awesome and, indeed, is working so well that we can expect to start taking troops out of Iraq in early 2010 if everything continues to be so awesome.

We can start taking them out, that is, if progress is made on such minor issues as "Basra and the south," "Local and national elections," "Refugee return," "Kirkuk," "A national oil law," and the state of Iraqi Security Forces. In essence, thanks to the super-duper success of the surge, all we need now is several years of additional war and for all of Iraq's problems to solve themselves. Mission accomplished!

Comments

The Mission was Accomplished in a month or so. (I saw the flight suit so I know.) At any point after that, the CIC could have brought the troops home.

The gangsters weren't though enjoying their puppet theater, though.

Posted by Jeffrey Davis | April 16, 2008 10:29 AM

Not too surprising O'Hanlon wants the war to go on forever. When it ends, no one will ask him about anything else ever again.

Posted by penalcolony | April 16, 2008 10:40 AM

The gangsters weren't though enjoying their puppet theater, though.

Hey, it's a lot tougher to push through big defense contracts when there's no war going on. It was really the pragmatic thing to do.

Posted by Seitz | April 16, 2008 10:46 AM

You know, I think the op-ed page of Pravda had a better track record for fair and honest debate than the Post does on Iraq.

Posted by Peter Principle | April 16, 2008 10:48 AM

Hooray for O'Hanlon. Just hope that Hillary is elected so O'Hanlon's invaluable advice will not be given away in op-ed pieces but will be an official part of the administration.

Posted by della Rovere | April 16, 2008 10:51 AM

In software design and project management, there's a classic flowchart. Multiple steps in the process define how things will work, finishing with a big box labeled "And Then a Miracle Happens."

You now understand the neocon flowchart for the Iraq war.

Posted by LFC | April 16, 2008 10:56 AM

O'Hanlon should be living under a tarp in the forest, hiding from the public out of shame for being wrong time after time after time about Iraq, for pretending to be a liberal rather than a neocon warmongering thug, and for trying to seem like he has integrity when all he has is a cheerleader suit and a set of pom-poms that George W must've given him to cheer on this debacle. Instead, given how laughable our mainstream media is these days, he's given a forum to sling nonsense. I wouldn't believe this guy if he told me what time it is - why is he still being published in the WaPo? Shameful...

Posted by edsbowlingshoe | April 16, 2008 10:56 AM

It took a generation (a very bloody, painful generation) for Vietnam to recover after we pulled out for good. The sooner we get out, the sooner Iraq can figure it out.

Posted by DanF | April 16, 2008 11:01 AM

I believe Penalcolony is getting to a really good point in his remarks above.

You know, it takes a lot of effort to devise and perfect a point of view as spectacularly wrong as Mr. O'Hanlon's take on Iraq. If we withdraw our troops, he is going to have to start all over again, crafting mendacious idiocy about some other issue.

Posted by Green Eagle | April 16, 2008 11:08 AM

O'Kagan is in fine form today. Six bullet points and the first four contain absolutely zero content beyond "maintain troop levels until something improbable occurs spontaneously." The last two are, respectively, a benchmark that should have been reached 4 years ago, and a fresh coat of paint slapped on the dismal failed strategy of Donald Rumsfeld.

Posted by LaFollette Progressive | April 16, 2008 11:18 AM

If we pull out now, O'Hanlon's career will go down in flames and we can't have that.

"We can start taking them out, that is, if progress is made on such minor issues as "Basra and the south," "Local and national elections," "Refugee return," "Kirkuk," "A national oil law," and the state of Iraqi Security Forces. In essence, thanks to the super-duper success of the surge, all we need now is several years of additional war and for all of Iraq's problems to solve themselves. Mission accomplished!"

I wonder if there were Japanese generals in August 1945 trying to convince the Emperor that they could continue fighting once they managed to de-nuke Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Posted by Reality Man | April 16, 2008 11:26 AM

THIS IS GREAT NEWS!!! FOR THE SURGE!

Posted by jim | April 16, 2008 11:33 AM

If we pull out now, O'Hanlon's career will go down in flames and we can't have that.

I disagree. He'll simply change careers and spend the rest of his life lecturing us on how we were soooooo close to achieving total victory. There are asshats who are still doing that over the Vietnam War.

Posted by LFC | April 16, 2008 11:34 AM

Can just anyone get an op-ed in the Washington Post these days?

O'Hanlon being treated like some expert in foreign policy is like Britney Spears being consulted as an expert on child-rearing.

Wait, I better check the WaPo "Lifestyle" section before I make that joke. They may have already done it.

Posted by Pope Ratzo | April 16, 2008 12:55 PM

I wonder if there were Japanese generals in August 1945 trying to convince the Emperor that they could continue fighting once they managed to de-nuke Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Yes. Amazing, but true.

Posted by Soprano | April 16, 2008 2:30 PM

"I disagree. He'll simply change careers and spend the rest of his life lecturing us on how we were soooooo close to achieving total victory. There are asshats who are still doing that over the Vietnam War."

Including our Dear Leader, who stood in front of a bust of Ho Chi Minh and basically told his Viet hosts that we let them win because we didn't stay long enough.

Posted by KevinD | April 16, 2008 2:49 PM

"I disagree. He'll simply change careers and spend the rest of his life lecturing us on how we were soooooo close to achieving total victory. There are asshats who are still doing that over the Vietnam War."

Including our Dear Leader, who stood in front of a bust of Ho Chi Minh and basically told his Viet hosts that we let them win because we didn't stay long enough.

Posted by KevinD | April 16, 2008 2:55 PM

Where's Powell? How did he miss this one? It's his fucking JOB to get in here and disillusion us!

I tell you, no one wants to work any more! Get a paid propagandist and then he doesn't propagandize!

Posted by Richard Steven Hack | April 16, 2008 5:07 PM