Prof. Scott Lucas
It is now a month after President Bush’s dramatic pronouncement of a US “surge” in Iraq, consisting of more than 20,000 additional troops and up to $1 billion in economic projects. Yet, in many respects, it is still unclear what those troops and additional funds are supposed to accomplish. Leave aside that there has been no strategic clarity beyond assertions of an invigorated Iraqi political system and a general triumph over the ill-defined insurgency, there has been little definition of tactical objectives. Who exactly will be confronted and defeated by the additional troops and vanquished by changes that supposedly strength Iraqi governance and administration?