by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n
NRO’s\u00a0The Corner<\/em><\/p>\n T<\/span>he larger question that will await General Petraeus is not just the tempo of the surge per se \u2014 after all, given the efficacy of the U.S. military it can pretty much do what it wishes if it is willing to invest sufficient amounts of time, material, and manpower, and take casualties.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rather the dilemma will arise to what degree has the tactical success of the surge allowed a degree of confidence and security that will push Iraq over the top from barbarism to civilization, and thus allow gradual, if at first tiny, withdrawal of U.S. military forces at a timetable that is sober and not pushed by frenzied anti-war public opinion.<\/p>\n Usually successful campaigns help lead to strategic resolutions, but our current one is far more complex, involving the Iraqis’ willingness to step forward to stop the random violence, and the American electorate’s willingness to accept daily depressing news on the assurance that the four-year commitment is both winding down and becoming less costly \u2014 while leading to something far better than the prewar past that will contribute to regional and U.S. security.<\/p>\n So the key is not debating whether the surge is “working” (it is), but rather concentrating on the post-surge, and defining exactly what are the conditions that result from it vis \u00e1 vis Iraqi security, and our military situation and national mood. In the meantime, we must deal the enemy such a blow that security and utilities improve radically, Iraqis join the perceived winning side, and present regional troublemakers alter their assumptions that we are going to leave in defeat to their advantage.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u00a92007 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Victor Davis Hanson NRO’s\u00a0The Corner The larger question that will await General Petraeus is not just the tempo of the surge per se \u2014 after all, given the efficacy of the U.S. military it can pretty much do what it wishes if it is willing to invest sufficient amounts of time, material, and manpower, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[755],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-Vt","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3561,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/surging-politics\/","url_meta":{"origin":3563,"position":0},"title":"Surging Politics","author":"victorhanson","date":"August 13, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Critics of the U.S. troop \"surge\" in Iraq, called for by President George Bush in January, early on cited American losses and then announced the plan's failure. Supporters, on the other hand, have seen progress from new tactics (which, many argue, should have\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "August 2007"","block_context":{"text":"August 2007","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2007\/august-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1348,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/a-tale-of-two-surges\/","url_meta":{"origin":3563,"position":1},"title":"A Tale of Two Surges","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 6, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services From 2007 to 2009, a surge of 20,000 troops under the generalship of David Petraeus saved a mostly lost war in Iraq. Petraeus\u2019s counterinsurgency doctrine helped win over the population, as the surge in troops gave greater security to Iraq\u2019s government and military.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Iraq"","block_context":{"text":"Iraq","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/iraq\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":450,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/thoughts-on-cario-and-benghazi\/","url_meta":{"origin":3563,"position":2},"title":"Thoughts on Cario and Benghazi","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner We Seem to Have Learned Nothing from 9\/11 I thought we had learned long ago on 9\/11 that radical Islam hates the West not because of troops in Saudi Arabia, or Danish cartoons or Mr. Rushdie, or even, as Dr. Zawahiri and bin Laden\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "The Middle East"","block_context":{"text":"The Middle East","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/the-world\/the-middle-east\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3517,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/hope-yet-for-iraq\/","url_meta":{"origin":3563,"position":3},"title":"Hope Yet for Iraq","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 15, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Tribune Media Services Iraq for most Americans is now a toxic subject \u2014 best either ignored or largely evoked to blame someone for something in the past. Any visitor to Iraq can see that the American military cannot be defeated there, but also\u00a0is puzzled over exactly\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "October 2007"","block_context":{"text":"October 2007","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2007\/october-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1283,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/iraq-through-the-looking-glass\/","url_meta":{"origin":3563,"position":4},"title":"Iraq Through the Looking Glass","author":"victorhanson","date":"September 3, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson NRO's\u00a0The Corner Most Americans will support President Obama\u2019s call for patience in Afghanistan and his policy of continuing the long-planned drawdown in Iraq. But there was something bizarre about his entire Iraq speech \u2014 it was as if it were being delivered by an exhausted Obama\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "September 2010"","block_context":{"text":"September 2010","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2010\/september-2010\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3719,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/stasis-or-victory\/","url_meta":{"origin":3563,"position":5},"title":"Stasis or Victory?","author":"victorhanson","date":"January 5, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"A surge in troops will fail miserable unless we correct past laxity. by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Online There are troop surges,\u00a0and then there are troop surges, in military history. Some radically alter the calculus of the battlefield. Others simply add to the stasis and sense of quagmire, ending\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Janurary 2007"","block_context":{"text":"Janurary 2007","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2007\/janurary-2007\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3563"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3563"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3564,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3563\/revisions\/3564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}