"For the surge to work, Ambassador Crocker and General Petraeus have to identify the Iraqi nationalists and empower them, while minimizing" two other groups -- namely, "the militant sectarians ... and the profoundly, personally corrupt," Toby Dodge, a Middle East expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said in the Post article.
BAGHDAD, May 23 (UPI) -- U.S. authorities in Iraq are forming a new military and political strategy that includes the removal of participants in sectarian feuds from key positions.
The plan, drawn up by U.S. Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. general in Iraq, and U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker, sets goals for the end of 2007 and 2008, The Washington Post reported Wednesday.
The strategy aims to negotiate peace between Iraq's warring factions at the national and local levels. Officials with knowledge of the classified plan said it includes political dealings as well as military counterinsurgency tactics.
"The revised counterinsurgency approach we're taking now really focuses on protecting those people 24/7... and that competent non-sectarian institutions take the baton from us," Petraeus's senior counterinsurgency adviser, David Kilcullen, told the Post.
"For the surge to work, Ambassador Crocker and General Petraeus have to identify the Iraqi nationalists and empower them, while minimizing" two other groups -- namely, "the militant sectarians ... and the profoundly, personally corrupt," Toby Dodge, a Middle East expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, said in the Post article.
