Willhelm,
The Washington Post article as well as the NIE both underscore the negative, because if we don't succeed the chance of this thing coming back to bite us is very high. The war isn't going as planned mainly because we never had a post-war strategy (1,2,3). We don't have enough men in uniform on the ground (4), the death toll is as high as ever ([url=...

Willhelm,
The Washington Post article as well as the NIE both underscore the negative, because if we don't succeed the chance of this thing coming back to bite us is very high. The war isn't going as planned mainly because we never had a post-war strategy (1,2,3). We don't have enough men in uniform on the ground (4), the death toll is as high as ever (5), and there are genuine concerns over whether the new government can survive the insurgency (6). According to the NIE, if the fledgling government does survive and we contain the various factions this thing could possibly turn around and have a positive outcome for the U.S. as well as the Middle East.

But from here to there is a long journey steeped in a quagmire of politics, a maze of strategical considerations, and that's on top of the budget-supply problems.

This Washington Post article is the most balanced analysis of the NIE report that I've read (please don't take my word, read the declassified NIE judgments for yourself). And as RecordSage said, the Washington Post article, clipped here, contained the following statement in the fifth paragraph.

On the relative bright side, the assessment notes the unpopularity with "the vast majority of Muslims" of the jihadists' brutal tactics and ultraconservative ideology. Democratic reforms and peaceful political alternatives in Muslim countries will also counter terrorist aims, it s