Oh My, Iraq

Okay, let's talk options first because that seems to be how these things get framed. We'll do a second section on goals, which should be first...but anyway.

Option #1 - The President's Speech: Send in 20,000 more troops to secure Baghdad. Send gunships towards Iran, opening the possibility of a new front of the war if Iran acts any more provacative. Force the Iraqi government to take measurable steps towards providing their own security - presumably meaning taking on the militias.

Option #2 - The Democrat's Response: Start drawing down troops into friendlier places than Baghdad. Keep a smaller, mobile force ready to hit Al Queda when we can.

Option #3 - The Andrew Sullivan Plan: Double-down and send 50,000-100,000 more troops to bring brutal stability to country. Disarm the militias ourselves (ie not working with the elected govt)...I guess.

Option #4 - Stay the Course: Keep troop levels the same, continue to support the elected government. In the current case, this means allowing the militias to stay armed and fighting the Sunni Insurgency and Al Queda. Negotiating with tribes in Anbar to give up Al Queda.

Option #5 - The Arianna Huffington Plan: Pull out all troops, acknowledge Iraq was a tactical and strategic failure. Ask forgiveness from the world and Iraq.

Option #6 - Widen the war. Ask Americans to volunteer (draft, if necessary) and take down the Mullah regime in Iran before they get nukes and because they are helping the insurgency kill American troops.

**Note: I am unclear on who Iran is helping. Are they helping the Sunni insurgents and Al Queda? This seems to be an odd pairing, only because the Sunnis hate the Iranians so much. Are they helping the Shiite death squads? Sadr? I'm just confused on this...

Option #7 - Take a side.

7a - Broker some argeement with the Shiite's and Kurds to completely empower the Shiite's and leave the Kurds autonomy and big oil check and help them eliminate the Sunni insurgency

7b - Assist the defanged Sunni insurgents to keep the country unstable and provide a counterweight to Shiite (Iranian) power in the region.

Option #8 - Break up the country. I'm not even sure we could do this if we wanted, but basically break it into Kurdistan, Shiiastan, and Sunnistan. Leave the oil with who sits on it - the Kurds and the Shiia and screw the Sunnis.

That's all I can think of right now. Each different option has ups and downs and could be done for varying costs. Although scaling back troops would presumably cost less than increasing troops, this would not be the case if scaling back meant we'd be there longer or if it caused an escalation of some sort.