I like Barack Obama, and think he has the guts and the common sense to make a good president.
But the Illinois senator is making a big mistake for the sake of political gain with the introduction today of a bill to remove all forces from Iraq by March, 2008.
If implemented, this plan would further endanger the lives of our troops.
When the Israelis ended their long occupation of southern Lebanon, they left under heavy fire from Hezbollah guerillas, seeking a historic legacy that they drove the Israelis out rather than political considerations in Jerusalem. The same will happen in Iraq.
I've been against the war from the beginning. One less Saddam Hussein in the world was not worth the lives of 3,000 American soldiers and tens of thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians and the physical and emotional maiming of tens of thousands more of both.
I don't say that now that we're in it, we must prevail. Victory as we define it is impossible. You can capture a country, but -- as we have seen throughout history -- you cannot capture a people. Far too many Iraqis don't want either a U.S. presence or what they perceive to be a U.S.-puppet government. The parade of roses Bush foolishly expected from the Iraqi people has never and will never materialize.
Sooner or later we will have to swallow two bitter pills: accepting defeat by the insurgents and living with whatever cesspool of violence will eventually become of Iraq. In the best scenario it will be divided into sectarian feifdoms. In the worst, the land will be grabbed by Iran and Syria.
If we must swallow those pills, better to get it over with sooner rather than later, and better to do it judiciously. Publicly announcing a timetable, as if the bad guys don't watch CNN, is folly.
Obama is politically astute to learn from the lesson of the 04 Democrat John Kerry and articulate a clear, consistent Iraq position. But he cannot allow himself to be elected on the blood of hundreds more soldiers who will die if the insurgents aim to ratchet up the body count before the calendar runs out.
We do indeed need a timetable for withdrawal as quick as possible. But the place to set it is inside the Pentagon, not on the Senate floor and live on CNN.
1 comment:
Some excellent points were made and I agree sadly that accepting failure in Iraq may be inevitable. This administration incorrectly and naively assumed that the Iraqi people would embrace and support our efforts "on their behalf." Nice try, nice spin. Some of the people did welcome us, but they were likely driven only by a distaste for Sadam and those in power; they were probably not motivated by a hunger for freedom. As a whole the people are not, in their hearts and minds, starved for freedom. The culture does not possess a collective sense of unity that we as Americans feel for our country and our way of life. Also, we are not nasty enough to do what is needed to scare the Iraqi people into humble submission. Fear, not love, drives their culture and the Bush administration does not get that. They seem to think that the whole whole wants to be like us and live like us. That was a grave error! Oh well maybe we should just back off for a few thousand years. That stated, I am very concerned that should we pull out and Iran takes over Iraq, Iraq will become a puppet state owned, operated and funded by terrorists. If that happens, then they may, for once, actually be a threat to us and our way of life.
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