Meanwhile...over at The Times...

Here's a great headline from today's The New York Times: "Plan B? Let’s Give Plan A Some Time First."

In the column, Frederick W. Kagan lists some advancements in Iraq as of May 6. He goes on to state that there should be no "Plan B" until Plan A has had some time of implementation. His major argument is that the vicissitudes of war argue against planning for failure at the beginning of a new strategy. (Although why contingency planning isn't part of Plan A one has to wonder.)

That makes sense. War is more of a becoming rather than a being. It never is--for more than a nanosecond.

It's good to see this somewhat hopeful scenario on the pages of The Times.

There is a sobering moment, though. Embedded in the opinion piece is this: "As one of the initial proponents of the surge..." And this: "Frederick W. Kagan is a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute..."

Ah, the two-part dilemma: 1) Do we trust a proponent of "the surge" to be as objectively honest as humanly possible; 2) Is a member of the conservative "think tank" American Enterprise Institute to be viewed with some skepticism?

1) I don't know; 2) Yes.

Perhaps the old TBV should be reversed in this instance: Verify, but trust.

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