If you put in more troops to crush the insurgents, you’re going to kill a lot of Muslims. Some of them will be innocents caught in the crossfire. Remember Fallujah? Remember the world’s reaction to that? “We’re only making more terrorists.�

Honestly, I don’t think so. Random bombing campaigns kill the innocents, but right now the terrorists are killing the innocents, not us. Our casualities are also going down, even though IEDs are going up. I think there’s something in this.

America will never get any thanks for this job. How many Americans thank the French, Spanish and Dutch for their essential work in securing America’s independence in 1783?

I certainly did when everybody was bagging on the French before, during and after the war. ;-)

If you put in more troops to crush the insurgents, you’re going to kill a lot of Muslims. Some of them will be innocents caught in the crossfire. Remember Fallujah? Remember the world’s reaction to that? “We’re only making more terrorists.”

In fact, just about everything it’s generally agreed the U.S. did “wrong” in this fight was done because it was less bloody — in the short term — than the alternative. We shouldn’t have let the looters dismantle the country right after the liberation of Baghdad? Very well: the alternative to that was to shoot the first 200 looters on the spot. Can you imagine the world reaction?

It’s possible that a draw-down of U.S. troops could be the right thing — possible. If the rest of the troops are concentrated in bases near the trouble spots, and if they fight a smart fight and basically serve as back-up and training for the Iraqis. Once the Iraqi people see less and less of the Americans in this fight, and more and more of their own sons, then they will, I hope, stand up and fight.

We can’t defeat the insurgents. But the Iraqis can. I remember reading a story (not AP or NYT) about Iraqi army on patrol backed by American troops. The people in the town looked askance at the Iraqi soldiers travelling with the Americans. “You’re helping them?” the people asked. “No, the Iraqi answered. They’re helping us.” The people just loved that answer. Who wouldn’t? It turned the thing around entirely in their heads.

The Bush critics are right in so far as they say you can’t force people to be free. But you can create the safe space around them so that they stand up and take it on their own.

America will never get any thanks for this job. How many Americans thank the French, Spanish and Dutch for their essential work in securing America’s independence in 1783? But if we do it right, we can be proud of ourselves, AND we’ll be safer.