Published on Wednesday, December 20, 2006 by the Hartford Courant (Connecticut)
by Ned Lamont
Snip...
As Yogi Berra said, when you come to a fork in the road, take it. By all accounts the current road (stay the course) is a bloody dead end. Now is the time to decide whether America goes all out for military victory or we end our combat role and let the Iraqis assume responsibility for their own destiny.
Those championing the first course believe that Iraq is the front line in the war on terror, the World War III of our generation. They speak loudly and carry a small stick. You do not win a war by embedding more American trainers in the Iraqi army or with a short-term surge in U.S. soldiers.
If you believe the Churchillian rhetoric, it's time to move from Donald Rumsfeld's minimalist force to Colin Powell's overwhelming force. To do that, you must prepare the American people for the real costs of war, financial and human - with the prospect of higher taxes and a draft; and you must sober up the people to the fact that we will be in Iraq a long time, as long as necessary to transform the country and the region.
To stay or to go - we cannot have it both ways. As columnist Tom Friedman framed the choice: We have either 10 months or 10 years in Iraq. Sen. John McCain said we must send the troops necessary to win the war; otherwise, it is "immoral" to leave our outnumbered troops to die.
It is high time for Washington to decide. Splitting the difference is politically palatable, but it is the coward's way out and simply delays the inevitable.
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The political worldview in Washington right now is schizophrenic: cautious at home and a daredevil abroad. Sending 140,000 predominantly Christian troops into the heart of Islam and expecting them to be greeted as liberators - that is a faith-based initiative. But on the domestic front, our government seems to have given up trying to make a difference. Our health care system is broken, our transportation system is breaking, our education system is a tale of two cities, we are more dependent upon oil, and our deficit is about to fall off the cliff. Washington responds with a tax credit here or an earmark there. Iraq is sucking all the oxygen out of the real policy debates, which are long overdue.
more...The war is immoral! Save lives, get out now!
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