US General says war will take 2-3 more years

From the NYTimes today:

The new American operational commander in Iraq said Sunday that even with the additional American troops likely to be deployed in Baghdad under President Bush’s new war strategy it might take another “two or three years” for American and Iraqi forces to gain the upper hand in the war.

This week the President lays out his "new way forward" for Iraq.  Having rejected the two main recommendations of the Iraq Study Group report - an enhanced regional diplomatic track, and a gradual reduction of US forces in Iraq - the President is now left to argue for essentially more of what he has been doing for the last three years.   Yes, there will be the appearance of change.  We will have "benchmarks," figleaf economic initiatives, Maliki saying all the right things, vague promises of reconcilation and of course more troops.  But at the core of a new strategy is a prayer, a big and significant prayer, a prayer that things will get better because now we really want them to.  

As this story in the Times shows the core of the new strategy is that somehow these new American troops will quiet the sectarian conflict driving the latest round of deteroriation.  I for one do not believe that a sustainable peace in Iraq is possible without the involvement of other interested regional parties like Iran and Saudi Arabia.  Going it alone, with as we have these past 3 years, without the help of the UN, our global allies, other regional actors, has failed.  If the President really wanted to move Iraq forward, he would have changed the fundamental political dynamic inside the country, and shown that the goal of stablizing Iraq was an international priority, not just an American one.  On the ground our troops aren't seen as peacekeepers, but as occupiers, as combatants, and that core dynamic if anything will be accentuated by the President's new plan.  Which is why the Joint Chiefs have made it clear to the White House that they believe more troops means an escalation of violence, the very opposite of what the President will say to us later this week.