During the questioning, Rep. Tom Lantos brought up the idea of a "diplomatic surge" to match the military surge as a means to bring about political reconciliation. This seems as important an idea as the surge itself, since the whole point of increasing security was to get the Iraqi politicians talking and thus ensure that our army's efforts would last.

In my mind, this should be the key phrase for the rest of 2007. If the surge is actually making the progress that Petraeus claims, we may as well try our hand at bringing the politicians together more forcefully. We can leverage our position as the guarantor of the Sunni's security, the Kurd's relative independence and the Shiite's ascendancy in the negotiations.

The constitution needs reform, an oil law needs to be passed, Militias need to be disbanded, and power sharing\representation deals need to be hashed out and concluded. So its time for Bush to authorize crocker to break out the biggest sticks and carrots in his bag, pull our allies like Saudi Arabia, France or the UN to the table, and Diplomatic Surge the crap out of the political situation.

Now that's just crazy talk. The Decider doesn't do diplomacy! If we were talking about a lesser president who belonged to the "reality-based community", a diplomatic surge would have been underway from the outset; it would have been a given! But you're talking about The Commander Guy!

Sheesh. ;-)

I'm afraid that nothing short of a new Marshall plan would do the trick.

Bush does not have the disire, credibility, or competence to execute the neccessary policy.

Unless we impeach him for incompetence, withdrawal is the best option.

A diplomatic surge would be too little.

We would need an all-out diplomatic push

A massive re-deployment of security forces

A huge commitment of new re-constuction funding.

None of these are even remotely possible

Patriotism:

I'm afraid that nothing short of a new Marshall plan would do the trick.

Bush does not have the disire, credibility, or competence to execute the neccessary policy.

Unless we impeach him for incompetence, withdrawal is the best option.

A diplomatic surge would be too little.

We would need an all-out diplomatic push

A massive re-deployment of security forces

A huge commitment of new re-constuction funding.

None of these are even remotely possible

I actually think that all three of those are "possible." Whether the administration will put any effort into them is another thing.

A diplomatic surge costs nothing, just a few cabinet meetings and phone calls to pres. Maliki, Ambassador Crocker, and sec. general Moon. Maybe call up Sarkozy too.

One speech in front of congress could get a new plan for reconstruction onto the drawing board, and if the appropriations committee slapped an oversight commission onto it (and excluded halliburton) people would support it.

Redeployment of security forces is another matter entirely. But yeah, it would be nice for that to be on the table.