Geography 101

The only thing worse than saying something when one has nothing to say is being unable to say something when one DOES have something to say. Thank you, Oscar Wilde.

Anyway, I have been trying to get this posted for over a week, so I apologize if it no longer seems to be timely news.

I heard a report on NPR well over a week ago which hasn't attracted any other attention that I have found--which shocks me--and which ought to make us all scratch our heads in collective confusion. The report is that the latest military brilliance from the Dubya administration is to convert the war in Iraq to a situation "akin to that in Korea."

This has to be one of the all-time great "things that make you go wha?!?" The report was all about how many in the highest US military echelons now support the notion that if we draw down US troop levels and deploy them similarly to the way we deploy our troops in South Korea, we can establish and keep the peace.

Has no one at the Pentagon looked at a map lately? The dividing line on the Korean peninsula is nice, neat, fairly straight and short--and is anchored on both ends by large bodies of salt water. How could we deploy a reduced number of troops in Iraq in a similar fashion? Given what has been alleged about Iran supplying arms to Iraqi insurgents, I suppose that would mean a line along the Iran/Iraq border . . . which is much longer and harder to maintain than Korea's . . . and which is much easier than Korea's to circumvent, literally, by going around the ends. (Think Germany going through Belgium to avoid the Maginot Line and invade France.) Besides, I don't think it would win us any friends or influence people in Iraq or Iran.

We could deploy our reduced troop levels in a ring around Baghdad . . . around the parts of Baghdad we want to protect, anyway. But that means allowing ourselves to be surrounded by the enemy. (Think West Berlin during the Cold War.) That could be very exciting. West Berlin, with all its palpable intrigue and danger, was a really cool place to visit when it was behind the Iron Curtain. But the rest of Iraq, along with the rest of the Middle East, is not like western Europe in the 40s-90s. Somehow, I am not sure we could (1) establish and maintain lines of supply; (2) establish and maintain safe access road corridors; (3) establish and maintain stable governments for both Baghdad and the rest of Iraq.

Besides, if we could do that in Iraq, wouldn't we have done it already? Isn't that what we've been trying to do since the mission was allegedly accomplished way back in 2003? What in the world makes us think that by adopting a "Korean model" we suddenly have a solution for the quagmire in which Dubya has stuck us?

This "Korean model" is neither a good nor appropriate one for Iraq. The physical geography of the Middle East alone makes it impossible. Though I can see how Dubya would be attracted to the notion of the parallels between North Korea and Iran, seeing as how those two states were prominent in his "Axis of Evil" State of the Union address. And THEY both have WMDs. Maybe, if we were going to "make the world safe for democracy," we should have invaded one of those places instead of getting revenge on Saddam Hussein, who dissed Dubya's daddy.