A time for patience

MNFI:

The Iraqi military is making progress in assuming the security mission in the country, but whether U.S. public opinion will allow the U.S. military to complete the training mission in Iraq is the real question, the Marine Corps commandant said here today.

Gen. James T. Conway held a roundtable discussion with the Pentagon press corps.

Training Iraqi Security Forces “is a long, slow process,” Conway said. “Unfortunately, I think the timeline it would take to build a fully capable, competent force – and for us to feel comfortable in stepping away – is longer than the timeline than we feel now our country will support.”

Conway said the government must ask more patience from the American people, “so when we do pull out of Iraq, we can do so and say it is successful and call it a win.”

Counterinsurgency campaigns are long processes, he said. Historically, successful counterinsurgency efforts take nine to 12 years. Developing the military is only one part of that, Conway noted, pointing out that the Iraqi Government must assert political control over the nation, too.

“This doesn’t happen overnight,” he said. “Your progress is incremental. You’ll have setbacks, but you keep your shoulder to the wheel and you keep pushing. That’s the attitude of the Marines out there. They are encouraged by the micro-successes they see, the relationships they build and the people they see step forward who want to fight for their own country.”

Conway said he regards the battles in Afghanistan and Iraq as the first battles of the war on terror. He said it is important to win these battles....

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The problem is that it is important for the Democrats to lose these battles when it comes to Iraq. They are too short sighted to see that this will just free up enemy forces for the fight in Afghanistan and elsewhere. They are too eager to return to the failed policies of the Clinton administration.