LAT: Fallback strategy for Iraq: train locals, draw down forces

[Rose Siding]

American military planners have begun plotting a fallback strategy for Iraq that includes a gradual withdrawal of forces and a renewed emphasis on training Iraqi fighters in case the current troop buildup fails or is derailed by Congress.

Such a strategy, based in part on the U.S. experience in El Salvador in the 1980s, is still in the early planning stages and would be adjusted to fit the outcome of the current surge in troop levels, according to military officials and Pentagon consultants who spoke on condition of anonymity when discussing future plans.
...
A strategy following the El Salvador model would be a dramatic break from President Bush's current policy committing large numbers of U.S. troops to aggressive counterinsurgency tactics, but it has influential backers within the Pentagon.
...
Although Pentagon officials said the effort in Iraq would have to be much larger than the 55 advisors used in El Salvador, that model has influenced planning. Officials note that they are thinking about using thousands of advisors — although not tens of thousands — in the next phase of Iraq strategy.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-na-planc12mar12,0,4250952.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[jaxx]

1. Sounds like the "when they stand up, we'll stand down"

and so far it hasn't worked.

[piedmont]

6. I don't get it-- it's EXACTLY the same, but the administration is saying it's something NEW?

We've been training Iraqis for nearly 4 yrs. now-- how is this different?

[Roland99]

11. How is this different? Simple. Because they're saying it *now*.

America's (and the M$M's) short-term memories are rather lacking.

[Canuckistanian]

2. Train locals, draw down forces - where have I heard that before?

Oh, yes, I remember - Vietnam.

In 1956, the U.S. government, under its Cold War policy of containing the spread of Communism, supported the South Vietnamese government's decision to cancel elections, which might have unified the country under the Communists, and started sending in military "advisors" to train troops. By the mid-1960s, this support had turned into full-scale military involvement, with the U.S. troops doing much of the fighting against the Communist rebels (the Viet Cong).

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/getupstandup/flash_vietnam.html

[Kagemusha]

3. OMG! The Salvador Option! ...Well, this isn't what's usually meant by that.

Still, it makes for quite an ironically funny line about a not very funny situation.

[Barrett808]

12. "Salvador Option" == "paramilitary death squads"

It's amazing there are still people who call the Reagan/Bush policy in El Salvador a success.

[anotherdrew]

4. I'm sick of the word "training" - the iraqi's don't need training, they need us gone n/t

[piedmont]

5. Isn't this the same strategy we've had the whole time?

The only scenario that would allow the U.S. to declare victory is the one in which we train the Iraqis to police their own country, and then we withdraw.
I haven't been keeping up with every detail about the "surge," but good gosh, if it's true that they were planning the the damn thing with NO additional plan for training a competent Iraqi force to take its place (since the "surge" is supposed to be temporary), then that's utterly APALLING. What the hell did they think would happen when we came to the end of the surge time frame?

[maddezmom]

7. kick

another bs "plan"...it's the same old plan the US has been using forever.

[salin]

8. sure sounds like jrs "we'll stand down as they step up" strategy.

How many years ago did he start telling us how many divisions had been trained as a measure of progress (only to have his words be clarified by reports of how few had really been fully trained.)

[Warren Stupidity]

9. The circlejerk continues.

How fucking stupid are we? What's next? Stay the course: second course? Mission ReAccomplished? Then another escalation?

Oh by "the El Salvador model" they mean that "the locals", as in the shiite dominated government, would be quietly informed that any level of brutality will be acceptable. Mass killings from government backed death squads will join in with the sectarian militias in the blood bath. The plan will not work. It will kill a lot of Iraqis though, but Iraqis are small and brown and worship foreign gods and speak gobbledygook so we don't care.

And while I am on the subject: how about our supposed opposition party leadership grow some fucking balls and VOTE NO ON FUNDING THE WAR?

[maddezmom]

10. Cheney seems to be flying solo on his "no pullout" mantra