Revenge of the Powell Doctrine

Powell Says U.S. Losing in Iraq, Calls for Drawdown by Mid-2007 - washingtonpost.com

Colin Powell offers a grim, some would say realistic, assessment of the situation in Iraq, one which apparently largely agrees with the Iraq study group. His most chilling comment, in my view, is his statement that the active military is "broken."

Although he said he agrees with Gen. John P. Abizaid, the top U.S. commander in the Middle East, that there should be an increase in U.S. advisers to the Iraqi military, he said that "sooner or later, you have to begin the baton pass, passing it off to the Iraqis for their security and to begin the drawdown of U.S. forces. I think that's got to happen sometime before the middle of next year."

Before any decision to increase troops, he said, "I'd want to have a clear understanding of what it is they're going for, how long they're going for. And let's be clear about something else. . . . There really are no additional troops. All we would be doing is keeping some of the troops who were there, there longer and escalating or accelerating the arrival of other troops."

He added: "That's how you surge. And that surge cannot be sustained."

The "active Army is about broken," Powell said. Even beyond Iraq, the Army and Marines have to "grow in size, in my military judgment," he said, adding that Congress must provide significant additional funding to sustain them.

Bob Woodward, in State of Denial, asks Senator Carl Levin how he feels about Colin Powell's current "anguish" over his support of the Iraq War at its inception. Levin responded that he did not care about Powell's anguish now, because he cannot forgive Powell for not stopping the war when he alone perhaps had the power to do so.