James J. Lee, AFJ STAFF Retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey is an adjunct professor of international studies at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., and an NBC military analyst.

Although “we are in a race against time,” there is hope for the establishment of a consensus government in Iraq, retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey said in his keynote address at the two-day Armed Forces Journal conference, the “Power and Limits of Jointness.” on May 31 in Washington, D.C.

McCaffrey, adjunct professor of international studies at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., said if significant progress in Iraq is not made in the next two years, it is likely that both major candidates in the next U.S. presidential election will be against the war.

Noting that they endured “unending misery” under Saddam Hussein, McCaffrey said he is confident the Iraqi people are eager for stability and prosperity.

To help them achieve that, the United States must be willing to commit $5 billion to $10 billion annually for at least five years, McCaffrey said. The money is necessary to sustain a viable Iraqi security force and rebuild the county’s crippled infrastructure, he said.

Although the Iraqi military was poorly trained before the war, U.S. military instructors have produced a capable Iraqi security force, McCaffrey said. The Iraqi forces, however, desperately need better equipment, he said.

“Rampant criminality” is another obstacle to stability in Iraq, he said. “There is no justice system,” McCaffrey said. The foreign Islamic extremists who are terrorizing the population also must be neutralized, he said.

Finally, the U.S. interagency process has failed and must be fixed, he said. “Only the U.S. armed forces and the CIA are at war,” he said. The U.S. State Department, the Department of Agriculture and others have made “no penetration” into Iraq outside of the heavily fortified Green Zone in Baghdad, McCaffrey said.

McCaffrey also said he hoped the U.S. would draw down its forces in Iraq by one-third by the end of the year. “We’ve never had a more effective fighting force than we have today,” he said, but the U.S. military is “too small to sustain a global campaign against terrorism.”

Return to news coverage