Thomas Friedman has a new editorial in the New York Times with specific suggestions to bring stability to Iraq. He directs his remarks to Republicans because Democrats have no voice in the administration or in Congress. Read his editorial here. His specific recommendations are:

1. Do not accept Turkish troops as peacekeepers in Iraq. Iraqis remember them as rulers before WWI. They have even less legitimacy in Iraqi eyes than do the Americans. This alienates mainly the Kurds, who have the biggest interest in keeping the Turks out.

2. Republicans need to recognize that attacks on Americans are rising in Iraq. We are not just conducting mop-up operations, but waging a full-on guerilla war.

3. We need to accept former Baath party members into mid-level Iraqi government jobs. Most of them joined the party to get the better jobs and are vital to American interests as the technocrats who can run the country. They make up the majority of the secular middle class and come mainly from the Sunni community, which the US is alienating through de-Baathification. By taking them out of the running for government jobs, the Americans take away any incentive they have in reconstruction. If former Baath party members perceive that they have no stake in reconstruction, then the Sunni community will continue to be opposed to the American occupation and violent resistance will continue.

4. The most difficult objective for the American administration is to prevent the growing split in the Shiite community between the moderates who are willing to give the Americans a chance and the more militant clerics who challenge American rule.

The bottom line is that America needs to promote a moderate political center in Iraq. This is the strategy that succeeded in Germany and Japan. It was not enough to drop money on those countries and $87 billion alone won't be enough to make us succeed in Iraq. As Thomas Friedman says, we need a strategy that will help establish a moderate political center and a middle class that has an stake in Iraqi reconstruction.