A modest proposal for getting out of the Iraq mess

[napkinz]

WASHINGTON - Well, it's a fine old mess they've gotten us into.

President Bush says he was right to invade Iraq even if none of the reasons for going turned out to be true - and what we need to do is "stay the course." Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld says, "It's quite clear to me that we do not have a coherent approach to this (the war against terrorism)."

Our president says that the country is much safer today because of his decisions. Our secretary of homeland security says that we need to be on the alert for a big al-Qaeda terror attack inside the United States any day now.

This administration cannot admit that mistakes have been made. Not even one mistake. If they do the whole house of cards might tumble. But if you won't admit a mistake, how do you go about correcting it? When you find you're in a hole, stop digging.

By JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY

Read the rest of the article here

[Sugarbleus]

1. OMG...the cartoon is too rich!! lol Thanks for the article as welln/t

[napkinz]

5. picture & bumper sticker

[kiahzero]

2. Not an unreasonable assessment

Maybe give the new government a little while to develop their police force and such, but then do something along these lines.

The problem, if they are not given sufficient time to develop their law enforcement, is that there will be enclaves of lawlessness. Such areas would be precisely the worst case scenario: areas where terrorists have free reign to do as they wish, and a security risk not only for Iraq, but for us and the rest of the world.

If Iraq becomes a failed state, the next twenty years are going to suck.

[LittleApple81]

3. Sorry, we broke it we own it.

from the article:

So here is a modest proposal to begin improving our situation in Iraq: We will withdraw our forces to desert enclaves along the Iraqi borders with Kuwait and Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Since the Iraqis don't want us patrolling their streets, we won't. We will hand that duty over to the newly sovereign Iraq government and its police, militia and army.


My comment: This might be possible after a sizeable Iraqi force is well trained (and doesn't get killed as fast as we train them. My friend has a neighbor that was sent to Iraq to train policemen...he became quite close to them and their families. When several of them got killed, the families asked him to never show up again. He was really conflicted: he wanted to help train the policemen but because he became their friend he didn't want to continue because it meant death to so many...)

[napkinz]

4. I think that's Powell's line

I'm not sure he has much credibility these days. He was the one person in the administration who opposed Bush's plan but then went along with it.

(Should the loyal soldier be loyal to the president or the country first?)