The Coffeespy

Blogging icon Instapundit put out a call for ideas from the ’sphere on Iraq, Iran and Syria.  His guidance:

I want some new ideas — beyond “cut and run” or “stay the course” — on things we’re not doing that we should be doing.

You asked for it…

1) Fight the war like it was World War II.

Thematically speaking, of course.  Good vs. Evil.  That’s what it is.  If the side of Evil decides to prop up a militia, take it out.  Plan for cultural fallout, but don’t let it stop you from achieving your goal.  People tend to think that if you cut off the head of Sadr’s militia, it will simply regrow like the hydra.  Well, the hydra is a mythical beast, Sadr’s militia is not.  If you cut the head off enough times, it stops growing back.  Iraq has an army and a government, they don’t need a secondary force sitting inside the borders.  That goes for any militia, terrorist group, or people’s defense force that wants to organize.  In short, quell rebellion.

2) Stop promoting secularism.

It’s not going to work in the region.  Secularism is anathema to the Muslim people and will not survive as an ideal.  A secular government will be a target of Iran and Syria until it has changed.  Instead, shift to tolerance and human rights.  If you can’t get Iraqis to make political choices absent religious views, have them weave the best parts of their views into their political choices.  This is pretty much how our own nation started.  The United States didn’t suddently do away with rigid Christianity, we picked the best values the faith had to offer (tolerance being chief among them) and wove it into our Constitution.  Only after a couple centuries has it become appropriate to suggest a complete absence of religion in governing the people… and it’s largely rejected even today.

3) Get every single person in the country documented within a short time frame.

If the Germans can do it in the late 30s, we can do it post-2000.  I can already hear the cries of “Big Brother” and “echoes of the holocaust.”  Anyone caught without their documentation after a cut-off date is detained and processed.  Processed could mean a number of things: documented and released, deported if necessary, jailed if deserved.  Documenting the population allows record keeping and administration.  With proper analysis of records, law enforcement and military agencies will see patterns emerge that can lead them to insurgent hot-beds, give an idea where illegal border crossings are, and allow for central record keeping.  Perhaps that’s a pie-in-the-sky request, but it would help with nation-building and compliment number 4:

4) Seal the borders completely.

Until the situation is under control, nobody gets in or out.  That only makes sense when trying to get a country on its feet.  If you’re going to complain about foreign terrorists running cells inside the country, then cut off access from the outside.  Only after you shut off the faucet can you drain the tub.

And the last bullet on internal Iraq workings:

5) Overhaul key military interactions between the coalition and Iraqis.

Increase training and embedding while drawing down base camps.  Embedding should go both ways, Iraqis with coalition and coalition with Iraqis.  After the very first kidnapping where Iraqis are complicit, withdraw all military support and only respond to communities of town size or larger that request it.  This is the trickest of all the recommendations and would have to be applied with the knowledge that it could degenerate quickly into attempted ethnic cleansing.  If it DOES, respond just as recommended above with militias.  Annihilate them.  Any opposition to the Iraqi security forces, whether police or military, should be utterly destroyed.

The KEY to success is swiftly and completely destroying resistence to the legitimate government of Iraq.  With options of force removed, the only options left are political and rhetorical.  This may seem like a very un-American way to look at it since we jealously guard our Second Amendment rights, but the Iraqis haven’t earned their liberty in the same way we did.  They pretty much had it handed to them and are now trying to figure out how it works.  They’re very distrustful and believe this is only an interim period where those who can grab power will be best suited to take control once the period is over.  By disallowing armed factions to exist and holding citizens accountable through record-keeping, you set up a situation where the power hungry are forced to work within a political-only framework.

And now for the external concerns…

1) Iran

No.  No.  No.  No.  NO!  Leave Iran out of it.  Aside from being one of the most evil (see WWII above) countries on the planet, they routinely burn the U.S. whenever we try to deal with them.

2) Syria

This is where diplomacy might work.  Might.  Doubtful, but might.  If we’re to have any talks at all, Syria is the only option between the two.  While they seem incapable of extracting themselves from the affairs of Israel and Lebanon, Syria recently saw a cultural revolution, in a very minor way, when Bashar Al-Assad lifted bans on technologies including mobile phones and the internet.  They recently pulled their troops out of Lebanon ending a 30 year standard.  Though implicated in the high-profile assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Farik Hariri, the stress of the backlash was evident on the Syrian government and ended the careers, and lives, of more than one Syrian leader.  UN investigator Serge Brammertz praised Syria’s cooperation in the assassination inquiry.  Syria may be ready for a change.

That said, Syria has a dismal track record when it comes to quelling strife that is well documented.

Give Syria a chance, but don’t depend on them.  Give them a a shot in a big way to help their ailing neighbor, possibly through contract work on reconstruction projects.  This puts money in Syria’s pocket and puts the Syrian people in the cross-hairs of the terrorist cells they’re thought to support.  Maybe there will be some hesitation before bombing a Syrian construction crew.  Maybe the bombing of a Syrian crew will cause hesitation to send more funds to those cells we talked about earlier.

The Obstacle 

Of course, all these recommendations are made without knowing the classified side of things in the region.  Also, it doesn’t take into account the one thing that can defeat any initiative the U.S. embarks upon: Partisan, poison press coverage.  It saps the will of the nation, the lynch-pin of any American conflict.

A free press is a great thing to have.  An unaccountable press is a liability as we’re seeing now with doctored photos and fabricated news.  Agendas and journalism shouldn’t mix, but they’ve been sleeping together since long before this war.  The best way to put a corrupt media in check is by checking the corrupt media.  Check their facts, check their sources, and check their coverage areas.

Even better, check yourself.

If these ideas are too far out there, I’ll hope you can Insta-pardon me.