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April 8, 2006
"The View from Six Inches"
It's not too hard to find both good and bad news about the situation in Iraq. Who is right?
Bill Roggio considered this the other day in a post on the recent bombing of Shiite Mosques. He quotes a U.S. Army infantryman, Capt. Dan Sukman, who likens it to "The War at Six Inches"
How can so many people have a different view of this war? Some say it is successful, some say we are failing, some say everything in between. The war to the infantryman on the line in south Baghdad is completely different than the war to an infantryman in Mosul, which is much different than the war to a soldier standing guard at division headquarters. And none of them see what a brigade staff officer in Tikrit sees, nor does that brigade staff officer see the same war as a company commander in Tal Afar.
Roggio concludes from this that
The media magnifying glass remains on Baghdad, and the wider story of Iraq remains practically untold. The media’s war at six inches is largely reported from the confines of the International Zone and the Palestine Hotel as al-Qaeda and the insurgency puts on a show for their benefit.
My own take is that Iraq is a mixed bag. It's easy to read nothing but bad or good stories. I think to some extent the answer to the question "who is winning" depends on your definition of victory. Al Qaeda, I think, is finished. The Sunnis have concluded that their alliance with them was a disaster, and are turning against them. No, the real danger now is sectarian violence such as what we saw in Yugoslavia.
We have entered Phase II of the war in Iraq. Can we stabilize the political situaion and defang the militias? Time will tell.
Posted by Tom at April 8, 2006 7:34 PM
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