Gary Hart: The Lessons of Iraq (HuffPost)

[marmar]

Gary Hart


03.18.2007
The Lessons of Iraq (18 comments )

Very soon a new industry called "The Lessons of Iraq" will be born, even as the search for the end-game continues against the back-drop of the theme "who lost Iraq." Partisan strategists will be allocating blame while more thoughtful citizens will try to draw lessons for future generations.

Some lessons are apparent.

Do not manufacture justification for invasions. Plan for all eventualities, including the most unpleasant. Do not pay exiles to tell you what you want to hear. Deal honestly with Congress and the American people. Be candid about possible costs in lives and money. And an endless list of common sense, and Constitutional, dos and don'ts.

The second kind of lessons are less obvious and have to do with the new realities of the 21st century:

First, treat jihadist terrorism more like organized crime than traditional warfare. By declaring "war on terrorism" we made the fatal mistake that it could be crushed using conventional warfare and massed armies. We clearly had the legal and moral right to overturn the Taliban government in Afghanistan that harbored al Qaeda as it planned and carried out the 9.11 attacks. Even so, the democratization of an ancient tribal society is proving hugely more difficult than driving the Taliban out of Kabul. Indeed, it seems set on returning.
Instead, we should create NATO II, an organization combining the intelligence services, law enforcement agencies, and special forces of Western democracies to coordinate the crushing of jihadist cells. .....(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-hart/the-lessons-of-iraq_b_43695.html

[blm]

1. I wish there were more Gary Harts, John Kerrys, and Wes Clarks speaking for Democrats

on military and foreign policy - men who STUDIED terrorism, the regions and its religions and cultures - and fewer Bush-supporting Democrats who have managed to control the party way too much over the last 6 years.

[karynnj]

2. I heard Gary Hart speak in Boston at Fanueil Hall

before Kerry's Real Security speech. His words and presense reminded me why I was impressed by him in the 80s.

With his work on terror, which would have resonated with Kerry's own credendials there, I think he would have been a brilliant and bold choice for VP. They could have claimed to be two very experienced men - who both spent the 90s speaking of the dangers of terrorism. Donna Rice would have been a quarter of a century earlier and something the Hart marriage survived.