perfidy

B laid down the challenge a while back, and it's been sitting in the back of my head ever since. The problem is definitely hard -- how do we "fix" the situation over there, assuming that we do not have magic time machines. At this exact moment I feel a magic time machine is actually our best option. Now that I think about it, developing a time machine might be cheaper than extracting ourselves from this mess. Be that as it may:

The US has the following overarching goal: To reduce the security threat against the US, worldwide. In the age of the super-empowered man, technology is a growing threat; one that can cause remarkable devastation. It is not so much the technologies of today that we are worried about; rather, it is the technology that will be available twenty years from now. We must embark on courses of action now that will yield a more secure environment in the future, several decades hence.

A secondary goal of the US is to preserve a measure of economic dominance over the rest of the world, to the extent that is possible.

We'll stipulate that liberating Iraq is, in the moral sense, the "right" thing to do. I won't stipulate that this particular liberation gives the US the most human rights bang for its buck; it's not even close. Remember, two days Army $$ time in Iraq is more than Bush's entire commitment to solve problems like AIDS.

I recall when the war was launched that I was decidedly unsure about it. I couldn't really make up my mind whether or not it was the right thing to do. The WMD explanation just didn't really make any sense; for the Administration to claim now that "every thought there were WMD" just doesn't make any sense. There were plenty of people (like, practically everybody) in the world that didn't think they existed in any significant quantity.

Quotes abound from the Adminstration and its penumbra before the war, telling us how it will cost next to nothing, there will be open arms waiting, and how Iraqi oil will take care of everything. These things have not come to pass, and while I believe that most Iraqi people are happy that Hussein is gone, much needs to be done to ensure that some feral Islamic Fundamentalism does not take root, and we do not swap one oppression for another.

We don't want to have hundreds of dead and thousands of injured so a bunch of nutcases can take charge, by default.

I think I've criticized enough. So what are the policies I would engage?

1. Institute an immediate, life-long permanent 3% tax cut for regular force members with a minimum of five years service OR deployment to a combat zone. Give the same tax cut to reservists who are deployed to a combat zone. Pay for this tax cut (which won't cost much) by chopping Bush's tax cut to the wealthy by a micro-fraction. This accomplishes a couple of things: First, we stop giving our Armed Forces personnel flowery platitudes, and actually do something that will help them. It's a permanent thank-you. And yes, I believe it is right for wealthy industrialists having their feet rubbed by young models to pay for it. Their freedom is being guaranteed by men and women in dust and danger.

2. Begin a grass-roots democratization of Iraq. Start with something very simple -- organize blocks of the city, and ask people on each block who should represent them on that block. Start with that person. Roll up the blocks into large precincts, and larger units. Provide funding for this exercise, secure conference facilities, communications (cell phones), and organization of the issues. This "semi-democracy" gets some say pushed down into the people almost immediately. Most Iraqis are offended by the Governing Council -- they think it is full of sycophants and profiteers. They may be right. It certainly isn't effective. The GC is top-down, and ineffective. What's needed is bottom-up organization. Send the Dean people over there; they get this shit.

3. Organize three different groups of Iraqi scholars to draft constitutions. They're going to compete against each other to produce the best document, and the population is going to have a referendum to pick one. Make available a variety of modern constitutions for perusal. The Governing Council shouldn't be in charge of this one -- let it be an academic exercise at first, then publicize intermediate drafts. Pay for all publication of this material -- deliver it to every house in the country, so that every Iraqi has a chance to read these structuring documents.

4. Vigorously pursue the use of Iraqi companies to do reconstruction and repair work. Let the Iraqis use their own standards and methods. By all accounts the American and international companies doing reconstruction work in Iraq are incredibly overpriced, inefficient, and not doing what really needs to be done. More than anything else, using local companies is an exercise in positive long-term relationship management. After all, we're essentially sticking Iraqis with the bill for all of this, in the long run. We would like for their children, paying this debt twenty years from now, to at least think that they got a good deal for their money.

5. Make it clear to France and Russia that Iraq's debt level is a problem, and if international support for the democratization of Iraq is not forthcoming in terms of troops and aid, portions of that debt are going to be "restructured". They're trying to screw us right now, and in some sense the US deserves it. Bush's insults are not being forgotten. Since they're not going to love us any time soon, we might as well get into it with them, and make it clear that there's going to be plenty of pain to go around.

6. Immediately shift materiel emphasis away from the fancy-ass "smart" weapons that cost a million bucks apiece to blow up a camel. Move some of this cash into ground troop equipment, so the soldiers get the kevlar vests they need to survive.

7. Decentralize. Shift some aspects of the command out of Baghdad. Move government offices away from Baghdad. Moving vulnerable targets out of the city makes sense, either to the countryside or to other, less violent cities. Pay for the Red Cross to set up outside the city. Pay for the UN to do the same. Provide free transportation, via buses, to these sites from most areas in the city.

8. Drop the remaining part of the Bush tax cuts, and redirect the money into warfighting accounts. We're going to need it.

9. Create a corps of several hundred contemporary Iraqi story gatherers. Their job is to go out into the community and collect stories and opinions from, recording everything they see and hear. Publish all this, in as raw and unedited a form as possible, for free. I know this sounds spacy, but there has to be a way to connect Iraqis with the positive potential for change. Creating a history as they go along is one way to get at the problem. I distinguish from reporting -- I want more historian than reporter.

10. Abandon plans to lower the force level in the coming months. Everyone knows that the only reason this pullback is planned is for political cover. Don't bother. This is past politics -- every single soldier-oriented piece I read talks about how the hours are long and hard, and that there's just too much ground to cover, too many things to do...we cannot simply go by the pronouncements of senior officers. They're being told what to say, and they know what happens if they don't say it. Look up "Shinseki".

11. Fully fund our current account at the UN, which will cost several billion. It may help to regain the trust of some. Offer to underwrite half the cost of UN humanitarian efforts in Iraq, for a period of time.

It seems like much of this list has a pretty large price tag attached to it. It does...and it's unavoidable at this point. More on this topic when I'm not so tired.