Increase Troop Levels

Bryan Bender, in the Boston Globe, reports that many hawks in and around the Bush Administration are pushing for troop withdrawl from Iraq--not necessarily completely, but at least partially.

Bender writes in "Hawks Push Deep Cuts in Forces in Iraq":

A growing number of national security specialists who supported the toppling of Saddam Hussein are moving to a position unthinkable even a few months ago: that the large US military presence is impeding stability as much as contributing to it and that the United States should begin major reductions in troops beginning early next year.

This is, I have to say with all due respect, a pretty stupid idea. The reason why we are in the mess we are in at the moment in Iraq with the insurgency problem is that certain elements in the Pentagon assumed that they could invade, conquer and pacify Iraq with a minimal force. This was, of course, against the advice of many counter-insurgency specialists, who argued that the ratio of invading troops to population was far off what it should be/

But now, with the problem far from being resolved, some are advocating withdrawing troops? What we need are more troops--not just American, but a broad-based force (preferably from NATO--they know how to do things properly).

In order to get to a point where we are able to withdraw troops, we need to create a secure environment. The only way we are going to do that is to go in heavy, arrest or kill the insurgents and criminal gangs operating around the country, and then (and only then) will we be able to consider leaving.

Instead of talking about cutting force levels, we need to find a way to at least double the amount of troops in Iraq.