The US needs to get out of Iraq, but we need to get out the right way. I wrote a diary on this subject last Sunday, mostly focusing on the issue from the political strategy standpoint. I believe, and polls bear out this assertion, that this is the most critical issue facing all politicians in the 2006 midterms. Unfortunately, our Democratic leaders are in disarray.
Today I thought I’d talk a bit about the details of how we might actually get out. There is a responsible way to do it. It involves three steps to have us out within roughly a year.
- Negotiate with Sunni leaders and Baathists: peace for a U.S. withdrawal over the course of a year and a real place in the new Iraqi government.
- Cease all offensive military operations; take a defensive posture and reassign as many resources as possible to training Iraqi security forces.
- Publicly state we will have no permanent military presence in Iraq and set a timetable, based on hitting training and security targets, for withdrawal.
The Bushies are going to get us out — or at least partly out — before the midterm elections. General Casey said so, Frank Rich thinks so. Sy Hersh said so on the Daily Show last night. Even Henry Kissinger seems to believe. Of course they will spin it as a victory: we gave the Iraqis a constitution and an election and now they’ve taken over their own security. But we never will be completely out and, because the Sunnis — 20% of the population — don’t have a place in the government, there will never be real peace or a real democracy.
For those interested in an actual solution to get out of Iraq here are a couple of must reads:
A Way Out of Iraq – Robert Dreyfuss
Aiham Al Sammarae, Iraq’s former minister of electricity, has stepped forward in Iraq as a key link between the Iraqi resistance and the occupation authorities. At tremendous risk to his own life, Sammarae has opened a dialogue with various Iraqi resistance groups, and he has offered to broker talks between those organizations and either the United States […]
400 days and out: A strategy for resolving the Iraq impasse – Carl Conetta
The key to enabling total US troop withdrawal from Iraq within 400 days is achieving a political accord with Sunni leaders at all levels and with Iraq’s neighbors – especially Syria and Iran. The proximal aim would be to immediately lower the level of conflict inside Iraq by constricting both active and passive support for the insurgency, inside and outside the country. This would allow the United States to shift resources to the training mission and to adopt other de-escalatory measures – most importantly: a withdrawal time line.