Our Commitment

It was 2003 when Newsweek featured their cover asking, “So What’s Plan B?” Despite a continued military presence in Iraq, the violence and insurgency continue and the country seems no closer to our goal of a successful democracy than it did back then.
Americans had hoped that the claims of the Bush Administration – that we [...]

December 21, 2007 | Filed Under Iraq (Iraq) |

The Dedication

A Moment of Acknowledgment and Reflection

We entered Iraq with an intent to bring about positive change – change that would lead to democracy and peace for Iraq and greater security for the world.
While significant efforts and sacrifice of human lives have accomplished the removal of Saddam Hussein from his 24-year brutal dictatorship, the goal of [...]

December 21, 2007 | Filed Under Iraq (Iraq) |

Our Appreciation - Forging Victory and Peace

General Pace, 16th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (2005-2007).
Peter Pace
“… we have to maintain our focus on what objectives we want for the United States, and then we need to give ourselves a good, honest scrub about what is working and what is not working … to ensure that we get to the [...]

December 21, 2007 | Filed Under Iraq (Iraq) |

Victory and Peace in Iraq:

The Final Destination by Paul Flum

A torn picture of Saddam Hussein seen at a former military compound in the southern Iraqi town of Umm Qasr.
As a nation, we are now into the fifth year following our invasion of Iraq in March of 2003.
The invasion and the overthrow of Saddam Hussein were the easy parts. Our [...]

December 21, 2007 | Filed Under Iraq (Iraq) |

Letter to President Bush

December 7, 2007 – Pearl Harbor Day
The Hon. George W. Bush
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW - Rm 1/WW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear President Bush:
O.K., President Bush, we broke Iraq, now we “own” Iraq, and we must fix Iraq.
You are a tough guy, you have stood firm on refusing to fail — [...]

December 21, 2007 | Filed Under Iraq (Iraq) |

FLIRTING WITH DISASTER: If the Iraqi Election Is Not Postponed

Commentary by Paul Flum - January 2005
As the Iraqi election on January 30 draws near, more and more people have come out in favor of a post-ponement. The security situation has deteriorated so badly, they say, that the election results will be so unsatisfactory, so incomplete, as to be rendered meaningless. The Bush Administration, [...]

December 21, 2007 | Filed Under Iraq (Iraq) |

Voices Worth Hearing and Featured Experts

Nir Rosen, author of In the Belly of the Green Bird.
According to almost every Iraqi, the Americans “came as liberators and now they are occupiers.” For Amer-icans occupation conjures images of postwar Germany or Japan, and the repair of damaged societies. In Arabic, tahrir, or liberation, and ihtilal, or occu-pation, have a much greater moral [...]

December 21, 2007 | Filed Under Iraq (Iraq) |

Senator Joe Biden’s Call for An Iraqi Federation

Senator Joe Biden
Back in May of 2006 Senator Biden from Delaware offered what many people now believe is the only serious Democratic alternative to the Bush admin-istration’s Iraq strategy. His plan has been steadily gaining steam and support on a bipartisan basis as frustration grows over the intransigence of the White House.
That support reached a [...]

December 21, 2007 | Filed Under Iraq (Iraq) |

America’s Last Chance in Iraq: Changing U.S. Strategy to Meet Iraq’s Real Needs

Anthony Cordesman is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan organization dedicated to providing strategic planning and policy insights for our leaders.
In his September 2007 report, Anthony Cordesman does not mince words: “We have no good options in Iraq!”
“We have a moral and ethical obligation to the Iraqi people.”
Even [...]

December 21, 2007 | Filed Under Iraq (Iraq) |

The Fund for Peace

Pauline Baker, President of The Fund for Peace and author of “A WAY OUT: THE UNION OF IRAQI STATES”
A recent new voice calling for a managed breakup of Iraq is the nonpartisan Washington DC-based think tank, The Fund for Peace.

“A Way Out: The Union of Iraq States” with Conflict Assessment System Tool charts and Failed [...]