“Bold Decisions”

A warning by a senior Republican senator that "bold decisions" will be required on Iraq if progress is not made soon has prompted talk that the White House might be forced into policy changes after the mid-term elections in November.
BBC

My fear with all this talk of ‘bold decisions’ is that George Bush seems mad enough to escalate the war, and not actually look for real ways out of Iraq

Among the options is one to divide Iraq up into three parts -- Shia, Sunni and Kurd. But that has some serious drawbacks.

The problem for President George W Bush was illustrated by an example only this last week.

The hope that US troops would be "stood down" as Iraqi troops "stood up" was turned upside down.

It was an Iraqi police unit in Baghdad that was stood down, because of suspicions that it was condoning militia murders.

If the US cannot rely on the Iraqis, then the policy of transferring responsibility has no prospect of success.

And if there is no political solution, then the violence will continue.

The president's options are limited.

There are at least four wars going on Iraq - the war by jihadists against US troops, the war by nationalists against US troops, the war by Sunni jihadists against Shias and the war by Shia militias against Sunnis.

Any action he takes to alleviate one area could impact on another.