''Dean Misdiagnoses Iraq''

"I respect Dean's opinions, and I think his change of mind is well-intentioned, but don't agree with him on this.

Dean lays out three reasons why we must continue to occupy Iraq: the possibility of a Shi'ite theocracy, the destabilization of Iraq by the emergence of an independent Kurdistan in the north, and the Sunni triangle becoming a Taliban-style terrorism incubator.

The problem with his reasoning is that our continued military occupation does not effectively address any of these possibilities, and may in fact make one or more of these scenarios more likely. It is an unfortunate flaw of planners in a military hot-spot like Iraq to believe that military force can accomplish every mission. To a hammer all the world looks like a nail, as they say.

All three of the dangers Dean astutely recognizes are really political problems, not readily soluble by military means: especially not with the relatively light force we have available in Iraq. Really, the only scenario which is amenable to military action is maintaining security in the Sunni triangle, preventing terrorists from setting up military training camps. Consider, however, that the insurgents have been able to effectively plan, train, marshall forces and materiel, and carry out terrorist and paramilitary operations despite our best efforts to stop them; one can hardly have confidence that future operations are going to be more effective. All Democrats should oppose prolonging American occupation of Iraq for one simple reason: Bush does not have the best interests of Iraqis in mind, and never did. Dean apparently still gives Bush the benefit of the doubt. That is perhaps manditory for a person in his position. It's not manditory for regular people like us."-from the post on Blog for Arizona today.