Jim Hoagland offers a balanced and thoughtful essay on Iraq in the WSJ($). He begins with a candid acknowledgement of the progress being made in both the war on terror and the war in Iraq:
Middle Eastern and European governments increasingly understand that they too are targets of al Qaeda or its associates and therefore provide Americans with counterterrorism help denied in the past.
There is also a spreading awareness of -- or perhaps a spreading willingness to talk about -- the disastrous global consequences that an abrupt American retreat from Iraq would bring, even as ideas of retreat become more seductive here. Islamic nations are renewing conversations among themselves about a possible peacekeeping force to help in Iraq, Arab diplomats report.
Despite the bloodshed and horror there, Iraq also records progress. Elected Kurdish and Shiite leaders practice democratic and responsible politics, and reach out to the Sunni community to join the process. U.S. forces are increasingly confident in the ability of newly formed Iraqi battalions to handle security duties, and will soon demonstrate that confidence by increasing Iraqi command responsibilities in joint Iraqi-U.S. units.
But he also cogently argues that both the troops in the field and the public at home:
... deserve a clearer, more realistic explanation from U.S. President Bush of their strategic mission and directives that show them precisely how to accomplish it.
... The White House seems to underestimate the fraying of national support that is occurring for the U.S. military presence in Iraq and, to a lesser extent, in Afghanistan. Freedom may be on the march, but Americans need to be told more specifically and causatively how U.S. and allied combat deaths abroad advance that march now, not years from now.
... The effort should start with Bush's public declarations during this year's commemoration of American valor on the battlefield. His visionary rhetoric about freedom and American values helped rally the nation during the shocks of the past four years. The reassuring approach, he can argue, has kept public anxiety to a minimum.
But the time for reassurance alone is over. It is time for details, for a sense of a blueprint, for a progress report that goes beyond listing what has happened to the top nine or 15 or 25 al Qaeda leaders. That simple, clear report should trace as well where the United States stands in fighting the Salafi extremist networks that intend to rule or to destroy Muslim lands.
