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Responses to "What to Do in Iraq"
A two-part web exclusive
The July/August issue of Foreign Affairs features a roundtable—What to Do in Iraq—with contributions by Larry Diamond, James Dobbins, Chaim Kaufmann,
Leslie Gelb and Stephen Biddle.
In this special web-only supplement, Christopher Hitchens,
Fred Kaplan, Kevin Drum, and Marc Lynch respond to the roundtable, and the question at hand.
In the second and concluding round of responses — posted July 17, 2006 — Stephen Biddle and Larry Diamond rejoin the discussion.
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Responses and Discussion
Day 2: July 17, 2006
Stephen Biddle
 I find myself again pleased to be able to agree with a fine panel on the diagnosis of Iraq's problems. We generally concur that the Iraq conflict is already a communal civil war . . .
Larry Diamond
 I wish Christopher Hitchens would move beyond justifying the intervention in Iraq (just as others need to move beyond condemning it) to grapple with the issue of what . . .
Christopher Hitchens
 I am again a little dispirited at the absence of the historical dimension from many of these postings, or by its appearance only in the form of false analogy. There is nothing remotely comparable here . . .
Fred Kaplan
 After the analyses and critiques, one is faced with the discomfiting question: "So what would you do?" Or, as Kevin Drum poses it: To withdraw or not to withdraw; and, if not, why not? . . .
Kevin Drum
 We all seem to agree that Stephen Biddle is right to call the current conflict in Iraq a civil war. We also agree that Biddle's solution is probably unworkable, and that all the other solutions on offer are probably unworkable too. . . .
Marc Lynch
 What is most striking to me about the first round of posts is the degree of consensus on two points: Biddle's description of Iraq as a severe and deteriorating communal conflict, and the limited resources the United States can bring to bear on the situation. . . .
Responses and Discussion
Day 1: July 12, 2006
Christopher Hitchens
"We have the wolf by the ears," wrote Thomas Jefferson "and can neither hold him nor safely let him go." He was writing about slavery, but one begins to know how he felt. My position on this differs from most contributors, in that I regard Iraq as an inherited American responsibility, not as one hastily or rashly acquired by the Bush administration. . . .
Fred Kaplan
There's an old joke about a physicist, an engineer, and an economist stranded on a desert island with a case of canned food. The physicist studies the can to determine how much pressure it might take to open it. The engineer scavenges for materials to make can-opening tools. The economist says, "Assume a can opener." . . .
Kevin Drum
In strictly military terms, America's biggest failure in Iraq has been a persistent refusal to give more than lip service to counterinsurgency and peacekeeping. This has been folly of an extraordinary order. . . .
Marc Lynch
Stephen Biddle does an excellent job of explaining the situation in Iraq today as a communal civil war. His analysis of the dangers of Iraqification under such polarized conditions is spot on, as are his assessments of the logic of communal violence. . . .
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