Somebody's Bright Idea of Politics

The Army is uniquely ill-equipped for negotiating with civilians, it would seem. Certain elements seem all gung-ho about canceling all our civil affairs missions (not that we really had any in the first place) in order to send a message to the Iraqis that they should cooperate with our operations or they won't get any projects done. This inane attempted threat will completely fail to work, for three reasons:

1. We have done essentially no projects to date. You can't effectively threaten to take away something that the other player doesn't believe you were ever going to give.
   
2. The Iraqi leadership doesn't care if we don't go out to try to get projects, because they want us out anyways.
3. And because not only do they want us out, but they hold all the legal means to make us stay out, we are in a severe position of weakness going into this negotiation. Acting like we hold all the cards is a recipe for nothing but failure. (Mixed metaphors FTW.)

Just another reason to say: Fuck the Army