A fatally flawed plan.

Byline: The Register-Guard

President Bush's plan to send 21,500 more U.S. troops to Iraq might, under different circumstances, be worth considering. Establishing security in Baghdad and improving protection of Iraqi civilians throughout the country are overdue priorities for the U.S. mission in Iraq.

There are, however, two fatal flaws in Bush's plan - and fatal is an apt adjective here, because these shortcomings all but ensure the failure of the president's approach and with it a proportionate increase in squandered lives.

The first flaw is that Bush refuses in the face of overwhelming evidence to admit that the so-called "unity government" led by Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has neither the desire nor the ability to unify the country. It is not a willing partner with the United States in bringing stability to Iraq; it is, more accurately, simply part of a complex, multifaceted problem.

The Brussels-based International Crisis Group, a prestigious nongovernmental organization the mission of which is to prevent and resolve deadly conflicts, provides this characterization of the current Iraqi government:

"Not unlike the groups they combat, the forces that dominate the current government thrive on identity politics, communal polarization and a cycle of intensifying violence and counter-violence. Increasingly indifferent to the country's interests, political leaders gradually are becoming warlords.

"Eight months into its tenure, and despite a string of promises, it has yet to take any meaningful step to promote national reconciliation, not even paying civil servant salaries in the predominantly Sunni Anbar province."

The second flaw is the president's bullheaded rejection of the Iraq Study Group's recommendation that all of Iraq's neighbors, including Syria and Iran, be brought together to help forge an international commitment to prevent Iraq from becoming a failed state.

The need for such diplomacy becomes more urgent every day, but Bush's only response has been self-defeating saber-rattling at Iran and Syria. Such diplomatic intransigence only enhances the perception of Bush in the rest of the world as a dangerous cowboy unilateralist, even as it provides renewed incentives for Iran and Syria to do everything possible to ensure U.S. failure in Iraq.

The International Crisis Group argues persuasively that the Iraq Study Group's diplomatic initiative doesn't go far enough. The crisis group calls on the United States to fundamentally alter its regional strategy, "renouncing in particular ambitions to forcibly remodel the Middle East and refrain from referring to Iraq as a 'model' for the region or the new 'front' in the anti-terrorism war."

Such bombastic claims smack of colonialism to Middle Eastern states and diminish the likelihood of cooperation with the United States to solve the crisis in Iraq.

Absent an honest acknowledgement of the Maliki government's failings and a genuine diplomatic effort to internationalize support for a stable Iraq, Bush's troop surge is doomed to fail.

Every soldier killed or maimed as a result will have been sacrificed in vain.

It isn't too late for Congress to change the direction of this debacle- in-the-making.

In fact, President Bush has opened the door for such action by issuing a direct challenge to congressional critics to come up with an alternative to his poorly conceived plan.

Everyone acknowledges that there are no good options left for salvaging the catastrophe Bush created in Iraq, but that doesn't mean there aren't better ideas than the one he's put on the table.

For starters, the Iraq Study Group looks smarter every day when its recommendations are compared with Bush's "new way forward." The International Crisis Group amplifies the Iraq Study Group report with specific strategies and recommendations for every government and interest with a stake in the stability of the Middle East.

Congress can do much more than pass resolutions opposing Bush's plan to send more troops to Iraq. The nation's lawmakers should call the president's bluff by combining the best elements of the Iraq Study Group and International Crisis Group's recommendations into a genuine way forward in Iraq, one that focuses on ending rather than escalating the war.