The Baker Commission doesn’t know what’s what on the ground in Iraq

Why? It didn’t interview the the lower ranks of line officers. If it had, it might know that there are about 100,000 contractors mercenary soldiers under the flag of convenience of American service, for example.

From a non-military point of view, though, I have to disagree with Capt. Carter’s support of the Iraq Study Group’s idea of embedding American troops with Iraqi ones on a lower organizational level than is currently done.

I don’t think it will “stiffen” Iraqi troops that much more in that many cases. Instead, I think that most units will melt away just as much as before, or even turn sides. And with diminished, spread-out American force, it’s an open invitation for more of our troops to get fragged in the back.

As for “grabbing the bureaucracy by the throat,” especially since Carter approvingly quotes Eliot Cohen, I wonder if he hasn’t had a sip, at least, of neoconservative Kool-Aid.