Sunday, May 6, 2007

"50 Ways to Leave Iraq" - Just Get the Hell Out!

Here are a few suggestions for exiting Iraq - all of them are a good-sight better that what's being considered by the current administration which is essentially worse than nothing (escalating the violence by increasing the number of troops in Iraq) or, at best, taking a "wait and see" approach: Here' wishing that Congress would just get behind any one of of these plans and ram it through this stubborn, deceitful, authoritarian, greedy, power-hungry, immature, anti-intellectual administration until they get the message that the gig is up - it's over, it's way past time to go home.

1. John Edwards Plan - Just keep sending Bush the same bill over and over until Bush comes to his senses or enough Republicans see the error of their ways and join the Democrats and override Bush's veto.

2. How to Exit Iraq by Christopher Preble (January 17, 2005), in which Mr. Preble, director of foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute, and director of the task force that prepared Exiting Iraq: Why the U.S. Must End the Military Occupation and Renew the War against Al Qaeda (2004), calls for a relatively swift end to the U.S. military occupation of Iraq. Preble states that it is in America's interest to quickly end the military occupation -- a stance that was, at the time, dramatically at variance with the conventional wisdom, which presumed that the United States must remain in Iraq "as long as necessary." As long as necessary has proven too long. The authors of Exiting Iraq anticipated that the trend of rising opposition to the U.S. occupation would not be reversed by the nominal handover of sovereignty in June, 2004. They recognized that the presence of U.S. forces undermines the legitimacy of the Iraqi government. They also noted that widespread opposition to the U.S. occupation within the Iraqi populace undermined U.S. credibility on a host of other issues.

3. Richard Clarke's article, USA Today, November 28, 2005
"The Senate voted overwhelmingly that Iraqi forces should assume the lead in the war in 2006 so that the U.S. could begin a phased withdrawal." We are now almost half-way through 2007 and the Iraqis show no more sign of being ready to defend their own country, and given the level of the civil war, insurgency, and violence, perhaps are even less prepared to defend their homeland today than they were a few months ago.

4. Congressman John Murtha has a plan.

I could go on and on, there are literally over "50 ways to leave Iraq," not one of them is seriously being considered by the current administration. Why the Hell NOT? is my question. Why the hell not? Indeed.