Democrats: Plan a way out of Iraq
Thursday, January 11, 2007 at 10:36PM It’s not surprising.
Not the action, not the response. G.W. Bush has ignored all the smarter people around him and has done the bidding of the war profiteers and our friends in Saudi Arabia. 21,000 American soldiers will be sent to reinforce failure in Iraq. The obvious thing for the congress to do is to use the power of the budget and deny Bush funds for continuing the war or increasing troop levels. The Democratic response is to deny that they will “cut off funding for the troops,” thus throwing away their only tool for influencing the situation and framing the issue just the way Mr. Bush likes it. (Cue sound of hands slapping onto foreheads all across America.) Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi has been busy painting herself into a corner, with Joe Biden right beside her. However, they will subject his plans to “harsh scrutiny,” according to Pelosi. That translates as watching closely as people die and money drains away.
Sigh.
Ok, Nance, Joe, listen up for a minute. It’s time to be active, not reactive. It’s called “planning.” (Yes, this will be snarky. Snarky is what they deserve.) Here’s a way out of the painted corner.
What do we want? Troops home, ASAP. Maybe we can leave a few in Kurdish territory and Kuwait to keep an eye on things, but we want them out of Six Flags over Babylon. Who would have an actual plan for doing this? (play Jeopardy theme music) That’s right, the Pentagon. They probably have twelve withdrawal plans, each covering a different scenario. I am sure they even have budgets attached to them. Get your hands on them. I know you have security clearances. Ask the generals which plan they prefer. Take the plan, the schedule, and the budget, and make it into a spending bill.
Week One: $11.2 million (or however much) authorized to move the 2nd Brigade of the 10th Mountain Division (or some other deserving Brigade) from Camp Anaconda near Baghdad to Camp Ohthankgodfinally near Kuwait City.
Week Two: $4.3 million authorized to shred and burn mountains of classified documents in the Green Zone. $2 million supplementary funding to Halliburton for 8 cases of marshmallows to roast at bonfire.
Week Three: $17.9 million to move the 1st Brigade, 1st Armored Division back to Wiesbaden Germany.
And so on. Millions for withdrawal, not one penny for sticking around and getting blown up. All the money will be released on a fixed schedule, all restricted to the purpose. The troops will not be “abandoned,” just moved out.
When GW asks for supplementary money for the occupation, hand him Plan #12 for withdrawal.
Reality-based Republicans can back the bill without angering the folks back home. The Democrats, with a real plan in their hands, could conceivably round up enough votes from Republicans to override a veto. The Iraqis would have a deadline for negotiating some kind of inter-sectarian compromise.
I grant you, there is much imperfection in this idea. However, the chance of getting anything even close to good out of the chaos of Iraq is microscopic. It’s a way to get past the Denier-in-Chief. It’s a way out. The Sunnis, the Shiites, the ordinary soldiers, and the American public can at least agree on that.
Postscript: If you think this idea has merit, please consider forwarding it to your favorite representative or senator.
Reader Comments (2)
Hey Hilton,
I agree, except.....now that we've painted ourselves into this corner, or perhaps it is more accurate to say, now that we dropped ourselves in the middle of this boxing ring and killed the former (brutal, repressive) referee, our departure will almost certainly bring about a genocide. Remember Cambodia. Of course, that's pretty much what's going on now and we're caught in the middle. I expect that we are having a bit of a beffering effect. When we take that off, the Shiites will start exterminating the Sunnis with even greater efficiency. That will put the Saudis who are mostly Sunni against the Iranians who are Shiite and leave the Turks free to exercise their itchy trigger fingers on the Kurds.
I'm not making an argument for staying, because it seems that by staying we just slow down this inevitable castrophe and get a lot of Americans killed too. At the same time, if a wider war spills out of Iraq into Iran and Saudi, then what? Europe depends on that Middle Eastern oil to a much greater extent than we do. The Chinese are busy making deals for their energy needs with the Iranians. The Saudis are pretty heavily armed thanks to their oil revenues and our propensity for selling munitions. And the there's the Israelis.
So, while its easy to argue for withdrawing, do we have any sort of moral responsibility for the mess we've made, for the millions of people who may be killed that much sooner if we leave? And what about a practical responsibility? A full scale war involving most of the oil fields in the Middle East will almost certainly bring in other powerful countries. And once it turns into a complete free for all, everyone is going to try to get their flag over as much of the black gold as possible. That could make the past four years seem like a playground skirmish.
As you know, i was against this war from the beginning. And like you i favor withdrawal. And at the same time, I think that will just hasten a terrible chain of events. I hope I'm wrong.
There is no pleasant way out of this disaster. The best plan I've seen was suggested by Peter Galbraith - withdraw, but leave a reasonable number of troops and air support in Kuwait and Kurdish territory. That way, nobody gets any ideas about overrunning the Kurds. Ultimately, it is about self determination. Look at the links at the end of the article and you'll see the polling results. Sunnis and Shiites alike want us out, by a huge margin. This, even though they acknowledge that violence will probably increase. It's their country and their fate.