Frederick Kagan explains in the upcoming issue of the Weekly Standard. In his lengthy piece, he makes the following points: 1. Arbitrary deadlines or milestones for withdrawal threaten to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.t 2. US Troops do NOT Impede Progress and are NOT the primary target of the insurgency; the elected government is. 3. Giving up on Iraq is NOT the way to "Fix" the US Army; it would only "increase" the danger of "breaking" the force -- a force that should have been enlarged long before Iraq. 4. Prematurely turning things over to the Iraqis is an exit strategy, NOT a victory strategy. 5. CENTCOM talk of minimizing our "Footprint" is a mistake; US Forces must be directly involved in attacking the insurgents in order to reduce their strength to a level the Iraqis are capable of handling. 6. The policy of "as Iraqi forces stand up, U.S. forces will stand down" is wrong; Pre-election operations/tactics shouldn't go away after December 15, 2005. 7. The "Oil Spot" strategy should be combined with ongoing "Whack-a-Mole" operations, NOT a substitute for them. Adopt a new target -- clearing and holding Baghdad and the entire Sunni Triangle at whatever pace the growth of the Iraqi Security Forces will allow, all the while continuing to attack al Qaeda and Sunni holdouts as necessary. 8. The presence or absence of sizable American forces will also play a vital role in determining whether the Sunni Arabs opt for violence or politics in the wake of the elections. 9. Iraq presents a firmer basis for optimism today than it ever has before. The challenges remain great, and failure will continue to be a real possibility for months if not years to come. 10. The greatest danger to success lies on the home front, in the danger that misrepresentations of Iraqi reality, politically motivated policy demands, and simple fear, exhaustion, and confusion will undermine our efforts. 11. The other danger is that those who do want to succeed--the Bush administration, CENTCOM--will inadvertently undermine our commitment by continuing mistakenly to emphasize the damage the American presence does to the prospects for success. 12. Continued U.S. military engagement is needed for success in Iraq--success that seems now to be closer than it has ever been--if we hold fast to the sound strategy for victory that has recently emerged, and do not lose our nerve.