NRO editors correctly warn that defeat in Iraq would result in a severe deterioration of our position in the strategically vital Middle East, weaken our credibility internationally, and probably lead to the establishment of terrorist sanctuaries. The editors urge that President Bush “act decisively while he still can, lest he be forced into merely managing our defeat.”

Josh Manchester, an officer in the US Marine reserves, urges that our military “go native” in Iraq, which is to say, devise:

a crash program to develop a massive Arabic linguistic capability within the US military. This is the United States. We put men on the moon. Why don’t we train 20,000 or more American military personnel proficient in Arabic in the next 12 months? Sure, it’s a difficult language. But nobody has to be able to translate the Koran in order to lead an attack, plan a patrol, or otherwise advise an Iraqi force. Have the president sign an executive order temporarily federalizing the Arabic departments of every US university that has them. The professors will keep the same pay, but it’ll be on Uncle Sam’s tab and all of their students for the next two years will be military personnel. If our captains, lieutenants, sergeants and corporals have 30 days of Arabic for 12 hours a day with native speaking instructors before deploying, it will get us where we need to be…[Then] create combined US-Iraqi forces…create a situation such that the American forces and the Iraqi forces are one and the same. American forces in small numbers live, eat, sleep, fight and die with their Iraqi counterparts. It will keep the Iraqis honest about not killing each other in wanton bloodshed. And it will earn incredible benefits for the Americans in terms of intelligence gained and cultural lessons learned. This doesn’t just apply to the military. It applies to the police, the border patrol, heck, even the Iraqi boy scouts if there’s a local chapter.

To see more of his plan, take a look at the rest of his commentary.