More From Senator Reed on Iraq

In today's Projo, John E. Mulligan reports on Senator Jack Reed’s Monday lecture at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies on the situation in Iraq…

Reed's tone during the speech and the question session that followed seemed darker than it had in discussions of Iraq only a few weeks ago.

Perhaps witnessing the discussion in person revealed a different tone, but the prepared text of Senator Reed's lecture doesn't present an assessment of the Iraq war that is significantly darker than his other recent assessments. The Senator did express concern about the progress of "Operation Forward Together", the current attempt to secure Baghdad…

Over the last few weeks, we have seen a significant surge of violence in Baghdad, a state of emergency declared by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki in Basra, and continued violence in the Sunni Triangle. One must recognize that there are areas of relative calm in Iraq, most noticeably in the Kurdish region….The violence in Baghdad is taking place after Operation Forward Together, a commitment of approximately 50,000 additional security forces charged with the specific mission to end such violence. Operation Forward Together's current failure is ominous.

However, most of the problems described by Senator Reed, as well as his proposed solutions, were consistent with what he has been saying for several months now.

1. The most important thing that the US needs to do, the Senator continues to say (and he is not alone), is provide more resources for the civil reconstruction of Iraq…

In my view, the most decisive factor that the United States has in influencing a favorable outcome is our attention to the non-military needs of Iraq from its economic development to its political maturation as a pluralistic government. And, it is this effort that has been most lacking and is most likely to be given short shrift as budget pressures and other looming crisis constrain our efforts in Iraq…

A great part of [Iraqi Prime Minister] Maliki's problem and our problem is that reconstruction efforts and capacity building have gone so poorly that few benefits can be associated by the Iraqi people with his government and our continued presence. There is still widespread recognition that the United States removed a homicidal tyrant from Iraq, but rampant violence, ineffective governance, limited public services and significant unemployment are replacing profound appreciation with growing frustration and anger.

The United States has spent roughly thirty billion dollars to aid in the reconstruction of Iraq. But, there is shockingly little to show for it. Much of the money was eaten up by security costs. Too much of it was lost through incompetence and corruption. Indeed, with daily reports of mismanagement of these reconstruction activities, there is a real question whether the Bush Administration has the capacity or the willingness to create the capacity to ever make a decisive contribution to the physical and institutional reconstruction of Iraq. Without such an effort, our military sacrifices will be undone.

1b. In the full report Senator Reed prepared after his trip, he goes into more detail about bureaucratic problems that our government is having in supporting the war effort…

The civilian effort in Iraq has been hobbled from the beginning by an inability to harness sufficient numbers of Americans with appropriate expertise. This is a function of the bureaucratic culture of American civilian agencies, and the failure of the Administration to change that culture with appropriate incentives.

The most obvious aspect is the fact that duty in Iraq is still voluntary and that the incentive structure of most agencies gives no special credit to the importance and danger of serving in Iraq....

I pointed out the continuing inability to field Provincial Reconstruction Teams (“PRTs”) throughout Iraq. This is despite the fact that the State Department proclaimed with great fanfare last November that soon there would be sixteen PRTs throughout Iraq.

Satterfield responded that there are now five teams.

2. Senator Reed noted again that the violence in Iraq is not being driven by foreign jihadists, but by sectarian rivalries…

We should also realize that the character of the violence is changing. As General Abizaid pointed out, the violence is more about sectarian strife rather than insurgent activity. This sectarian violence raises the specter of civil war, a battle for political control not instigated by international jihadists but by Iraqis claiming their position in the new Iraq.

3. The Senator did sound an ominous note regarding the state of our military. They have done and are continuing to do their job well, but could be “broken” if operations have to continue much longer on the current scale…

Aside from political reverberations, there is another ominous consequence of our continuing operation in Iraq. Our land forces, both Army and Marines, are stretched to the breaking point, and they could break without immediate assistance. I want to reiterate that our military personnel are doing a superb job every day, and they will continue to do so. But, the wear and tear of today's operations needs to be addressed or the long term consequences will be severe.

4. Finally, Senator Reed deserves credit for expressly rejecting the premise that everything bad in the world has its roots in something that the United States did…

It would be off the mark to suggest that all of our problems in the world are a result of the Administration's missteps in Iraq.