The chiefs "new" strategy in Iraq

Washington Post:

The nation's top uniformed leaders are recommending that the United States change its main military mission in Iraq from combating insurgents to supporting Iraqi troops and hunting terrorists, said sources familiar with the White House's ongoing Iraq policy review.

President Bush and Vice President Cheney met with the members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff yesterday at the Pentagon for more than an hour, and the president engaged his top military advisers on different options. The chiefs made no dramatic proposals but, at a time of intensifying national debate about how to solve the Iraq crisis, offered a pragmatic assessment of what can and cannot be done by the military, the sources said.

The chiefs do not favor adding significant numbers of troops to Iraq, said sources familiar with their thinking, but see strengthening the Iraqi army as pivotal to achieving some degree of stability. They also are pressing for a much greater U.S. effort on economic reconstruction and political reconciliation.

Sources said that Gen. George W. Casey Jr., the top U.S. commander in Iraq, is reviewing a plan to redefine the American military mission there: U.S. troops would be pulled out of Iraqi cities and consolidated at a handful of U.S. bases while day-to-day combat duty would be turned over to the Iraqi army. Casey is still considering whether to request more troops, possibly as part of an expanded training mission to help strengthen the Iraqi army.

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The situation in Iraq has gotten worse since the US pretty much ceased offensive operations after the Iraqi election. Since that time much of the country has been turned over to Iraqi forces. Right now most of the enemy activity is concentrated in Baghdad and Anbar province principally around Ramadi. It is hard to see how the US pulling back from these trouble spots is going to mean less trouble there. It is almost like they are suggesting more of what is not working that well. Perhaps it is the nature of the new counterinsurgency operations which seem to let the enemy have the initiative while our forces are forced to react passively to attacks.