Officers: Military can't end insurgency
... this insurgency is not going to be settled, the terrorists and the terrorism in Iraq is not going to be settled, through military options or military operations," Brig. Gen. Donald Alston, the chief U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, said last week, echoing other senior officers. "It's going to be settled in the political process."
Gen. George W. Casey, the U.S. commander in Iraq, called the military's efforts "the Pillsbury Doughboy idea" - pressing the insurgency in one area only causes it to rise elsewhere.
"Like in Baghdad," Casey said last week. "We push in Baghdad - they're down to about less than a car bomb a day in Baghdad over the last week - but in north-center [Iraq]... they've gone up. The political process will be the decisive element."
The recognition that a military solution is not in the offing has led U.S. and Iraqi officials to signal they are willing to negotiate with insurgent groups or their intermediaries.
- posted by geoff @ #