A terrible risk

I don't entirely agree with Ken Harbaugh, a former Navy pilot and now a student at Yale Law, about the reasons for continuing in Iraq, but I take to heart what he has to say about the horrible risks faced by the troops under Petraeus' command.  The policy stinks; the troops pay the price. 

You can hear Harbaugh's voice break as he reads his commentary on NPR.

Tomorrow, General David Petraeus will assume command of coalition forces in Iraq.  His main task will be to implement a new security plan for Baghdad, one that hopes to turn things around.  But it will require our soldiers and marines to take even greater risks by interacting with the local population.  In his previous posting as commander of the Combined Arms Center at Fort Leavenworth, Petraeus conducted a comprehensive rewrite of the Army's counterinsurgency doctrine.  The resulting manual says the troops must be prepared to be greeted with either a handshake or a hand grenade.  This works on paper.  Insurgencies are fueled at least in part by public support.  Engage that public positively and you take away some of that support. 

What it means on the ground, though, is that our soldiers and marines will have to interact with Iraqis who may want to kill them.  It would terrify me to be in their shoes right now having to take on extraordinary risks in an already deadly place.  Convoys that used to race through dangerous neighborhoods will now have to slow down.  Foot patrols will have to stop and chat.  I don't envy the leaders in the field who have to get this message across to their troops.  I certainly don't envy those troops.  How do you  tell the corporal, driving a pitifully armored Humvee, or the sergeant leading a patrol, that they must engage with the locals even if it means endangering themselves and their buddies. 

I understand the intellectual arguments for this new plan.  Defeating an insurgency requires connecting with civilians as much as killing insurgents.  In the short term, more Americans will end up... dead.  Those convoys speeding through neighborhoods aren't joy-riding.  They're trying not to get blown up.  This is an ugly war.  Nothing about it is certain except that the consequences of failure would be catastrophic.  If American troops leave before Iraqi forces are prepared to fill the vacuum, the current level of violence would almost certainly escalate.  Just as important, Iraqis who have stood with us will be killed if we abandon them.

General Petraeus's plan may be our -- and their -- best hope.  But it means that whatever chance of success there is left forces Americans even deeper into harm's way never knowing if that next outstretched arm is a handshake or a hand grenade.  That is a horrific thing to ask of any soldier or marine.