The El Salvador plan

Despite White House denials, there is a "plan b" for when the "surge" fails to bear fruit. And it smells like El Salvador in the 1980s.

WASHINGTON — American military planners have begun plotting a fallback strategy for Iraq that includes a gradual withdrawal of forces and a renewed emphasis on training Iraqi fighters in case the current troop buildup fails or is derailed by Congress.

Such a strategy, based in part on the U.S. experience in El Salvador in the 1980s, is still in the early planning stages and would be adjusted to fit the outcome of the current surge in troop levels, according to military officials and Pentagon consultants who spoke on condition of anonymity when discussing future plans.

But a drawdown of forces would be in line with comments to Congress by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates last month that if the "surge" fails, the backup plan would include moving troops "out of harm's way." Such a plan also would be close to recommendations of the Iraq Study Group, of which Gates was a member before his appointment as Defense Department chief.

A strategy following the El Salvador model would be a dramatic break from President Bush's current policy of committing large numbers of U.S. troops to aggressive counterinsurgency tactics, but it has influential backers within the Pentagon.

Frankly, I think this is crazy nostalgia by Pentagon leadership who long for the days of covert war in Central America. But it's surely a sign that it's not only Democratic Congresspeople looking for ways to get American troops out of Iraq, and fast.

But this is disturbing.

One Pentagon advisor said the Joint Chiefs of Staff and their planners were enthusiastic about moving to an advisor-heavy effort.

"There is a broad consensus about what the right longer-term strategy is, both because it is sustainable in the United States and because we are not going to win this for [the Iraqis]," the advisor said. "You might provide some temporary aid, but no one I know thinks the surge is the answer."

So, the Joint Chiefs are "enthusiastic" about moving to a small footprint, and yet every day Americans are dying simply to give the president "one more chance" at "success." No, not disturbing. Criminal.