Long-Term Impact of the U.S. Surge in Iraq

As tensions in Iraq build and Washington focuses on that country once again, check out this important new article on the impact of U.S. policy:

The Price of the Surge
How U.S. Strategy Is Hastening Iraq’s Demise
Steven Simon

Simon warns:

The surge has changed the situation not by itself but only in
conjunction with several other developments: the grim successes of ethnic cleansing, the tactical quiescence of the Shiite militias, and a series of deals between U.S. forces and Sunni tribes that constitute a new bottom-up approach to pacifying Iraq. The problem is that this strategy to reduce violence is not linked to any sustainable plan for building a viable Iraqi state. If anything, it has made such an outcome less likely, by stoking the revanchist fantasies of Sunni Arab tribes and pitting them against the central government and against one another. In other words, the recent short-term gains have come at the expense of the long-term goal of a stable, unitary Iraq.