Best Defense
Thomas E. Ricks' daily take on national security.

My new rule for understanding Iraq

There’s an old camping rule: Gather as much firewood as you think you will need that night, and then double it, because that’s how much you will really need. I suspect the same rule applies to Iraq in terms of how long it takes for political developments to occur: In Iraq, everything — good or ...

Flickr
Flickr
Flickr

There's an old camping rule: Gather as much firewood as you think you will need that night, and then double it, because that's how much you will really need.

There’s an old camping rule: Gather as much firewood as you think you will need that night, and then double it, because that’s how much you will really need.

I suspect the same rule applies to Iraq in terms of how long it takes for political developments to occur: In Iraq, everything — good or bad — takes at least twice as long as you expect, and even longer than you feared. (This thought inspired by watching Kirkuk and Mosul lately. Fallujah, too.)

As for shelling the Green Zone, which happened the other day — well, that seems almost nostalgic to me.

Thomas E. Ricks covered the U.S. military from 1991 to 2008 for the Wall Street Journal and then the Washington Post. He can be reached at ricksblogcomment@gmail.com. Twitter: @tomricks1

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