Obama's Plus Up in Iraq: Incrementalism is Not a Strategy Anthony H. Cordesman

Obama's Plus Up in Iraq: Incrementalism is Not a Strategy
Anthony H. Cordesman
June 11, 2015 |

There may be some merit in sending in 450 more advisors and support personnel to Iraq - raising the U.S. total to some 3,550 - and focusing on creating Sunni forces in Anbar. There may be some merit in deploying U.S. combat aircraft more forward to an Iraqi air base at Al Taqqadum in Anbar, and there may be some merit in trying to directly integrate more Sunnis into the Iraqi 7th and 8th divisions - the two divisions that will have to try and drive ISIL forces out of Anbar.

But, creeping incrementalism is rarely a way of correcting a failed or inadequate strategy, and this approach certainly is not a new strategy or a way of addressing the problems that the existing strategy does not address. The announcements of the last few days do not, by any means, reflect a new strategy, they do not address the problems in the existing strategy, and some proposals seem to be of questionable effectiveness.https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/?shva=1#inbox/14e001a79a34b41f?compose=14e06a42a46b961a%2C14e07446df7ba476