Exit Strategy Revisited

July 2^nd, 2005, I wrote a post here that stated the USA should set a specific date to leave Iraq. I’d like to take this opportunity to agree with myself 5 months later, especially since several Congressmen and Political pundits have since joined me in my opinion (thanks to Congressman Jack Murtha, who has certainly changed the game by being so outspoken about his disagreements concerning the War in recent weeks). Just remember, you heard it here first.

So please allow me to restate my case and my reasoning. June 2004, the USA turned over control of Iraq’s government to the Iraqi’s. January 2005, the first round of elections took place in Iraq. October 2005, a referendum was passed in Iraq.

The common link? Specific dates set for each.

The common outcome? Each process was successful and garnered no major violent uprising from the terrorists or insurgents.

The June 2004 turnover took place (a day early) with little drama. The expected bloodbath that even I predicted in January never materialized. And the October referendum didn’t even make much noise on the news when it occurred a couple of months back.

So why wouldn’t a specific pull-out date work in the same fashion (go ahead, tell me why, I’m open to criticism…but make sure you back it up with evidence).

You see, this false and silly doctrine of “staying the course” is fundamentally flawed to begin with simply because when we went into Iraq, we had no course to stay. Beyond toppling Saddam’s regime (which was absolutely NOT an imminent threat) we had no plans for keeping the country of Iraq together. We thought we’d be hailed as heroes and that there’d be dancing in the streets. We weren’t and there wasn’t. We thought that the war would pay for itself because of the huge repositories of oil in Iraq. It hasn’t and Congress will probably end up passing another major supplementary (or series of them) in the coming months. And need I remind you that ALL the reasons that the Bush Administration used to urge the country into war turned out to be false and unfounded. No connection to 9/11, no imminent threat, no Weapons of Mass Destruction; ALL FALSE!

So to “stay the course” would be to follow a path of fallacies.

I bring this topic up because today the citizens of Iraq will be once again going to the polls; this time for much higher stakes than the last 2 times. But as in January and October, I expect that this election procedure will also go on without major disruption or interference.

I guess the big question for the American public should be, how can we trust the Bush administration when they say we need to stay the course and that setting a date to leave Iraq would “send the wrong message to the terrorists.”

And can I just be myself for a minute and express to you how ABSOLUTELY STUPID I THINK THAT STATEMENT IS? How can you send a wrong message to terrorists? By definition, aren’t terrorists irrational? Don’t terrorists contort or twist any message they receive to fit the means of their tyranny? And who cares about messages sent to terrorists when the majority of Iraq’s citizens aren’t terrorists, but are certainly nationalists tired of seeing the vast American presence there. ISN’T STAYING THE COURSE SENDING THE WRONG MESSAGE TO THE IRAQI CITIZENS? You know, sending the wrong message to the individuals that we’re claiming we’re trying to benefit! In fact, not only is it sending the wrong message to the Iraqi citizens who’d like to govern themselves, it’s sending a horrendous message to the rest of the world, especially other Middle Eastern nations.

To the rest of the world it looks like the USA is there to occupy the land in order to benefit from Iraqi oil or to have a strategic location of military bases in the Middle East (presumably to protect Israel). To many Muslims it looks like the USA is trying to spread its idea of Democracy, and make Christian proselytes of the Iraqi people in an area of the world where Theocracy (in varying degrees) and Islam (in various forms) are the order of the day. And I’d suspect that many of the Iraqi’s feel as though they are strangers in their own land. Imagine how that would make you feel.

And finally, what have we gained by “STAYING THE COURSE?” I mean, it doesn’t appear to be working out that well for us. It’s certainly not going like Bush said it would. By this time we were supposed to be out of Iraq, leaving behind only a trace number of military servicemen. Instead we find ourselves increasing the number of troops in Iraq, having never squelched the insurgency or terrorism that exists there, with not even a tentative idea of when we’re going to leave.

Grrrrrrrrrrr!!! And my list of substantiated criticisms could go on. But back to the topic at hand…Exit Strategy!

So Bush has been saying that “as the Iraqi’s stand up, (we) will stand down.” But that doctrine hasn’t been working either. It requires us to train the Iraqi National Army, and to train enough of them that they can defend themselves. And over 2 years into that process, only a few thousand Iraqi soldiers are up to the task. We need to attack this problem another way. I say let them know we’re leaving and they’ll soon get their butts in gear.

Now, I am in no wise suggesting that we leave the country without training the Iraqi National Army. Neither am I suggesting that we don’t leave behind some troops and/or safeguards. I am emphatically saying, however, that we need to set a specific date for leaving Iraq because unless we do, none of these benchmarks for turning this war over to the Iraqi’s will ever be achieved.

Let me give you a (simplified) example of what I’m talking about. If you are reading this and you’ve ever had a term paper, research project, or book report to do for any class in your lifetime, I’d be willing to bet my next 3 paychecks that you’ve experienced the “last minute” phenomenon. Your teacher told you the due date, but you didn’t really begin working on your paper until you realized the deadline was fast approaching, and if you wanted to do well you had a lot of work to do as the deadline drew near. If you initially had a month to do the project, you probably covered more ground in completing it during the last 4 days before it was due than you did in the previous 26. And if it required you to pull an all-nighter the night before the paper was due, you’d somehow pull it off.

Why???

Because you had to.

Gee-whiz…even a mother bird eventually kicks her nestlings out of the nest when the time comes. And you know what, the baby birdies learn how to fly and fend for themselves real quick!

I submit to you, that the same thing would occur in Iraq. Maybe not so smoothly; and I certainly do believe the violence will continue with maybe even a temporary spike in violence. But the fact remains that the violence continues, with periodic spikes in violence, while the USA is there. At any rate, setting a date would force all the Iraqi’s to work towards the goal of governing and protecting themselves. Because there’s nothing like having a broken leg, but knowing that you’ll have to give up your crutches in a little while if you’re ever to walk on your own again.

Mr. President please set the date, and let’s get our troops out of there. They, the Iraqi’s, WILL stand up!

-Maelstrom

PS: I was pleased to see a Time Magazine Online article that echoed many of the sentiments I've posted in this post and my July 2nd post. They even addressed some angles that I didn't. You should read it!

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1136485,00.html?cnn=yes