Featuring Christopher Preble, Director of Foreign Policy Studies, Cato Institute; James Dobbins, Director, International Security and Defense Policy Center, RAND Corporation; Clifford D. May, President, Foundation for the Defense of Democracies; Marc Lynch, Professor of Political Science, George Washington University; and moderated by Ted Galen Carpenter, Vice President for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies, Cato Institute.
Despite the infusion of nearly 30,000 Army and Marine Corps personnel, Adm. Michael Mullen, the next chairman of the Joint Chiefs, admits, “No amount of troops in no amount of time will make much of a difference” in Iraq if there is no effective Iraqi government. Are the objectives and benchmarks set for the Iraqi government achievable? To what extent has the surge reduced overall violence in Iraq? How much longer should the United States be willing to give the surge to work before considering a change in policy?