Thomas Friedman Echoes Kerry Plan: Time for Plan B for Iraq

[kerrygoddess]

Thomas Friedman Echoes Kerry Plan: Time for Plan B for Iraq
August 5th, 2006 @ 12:22 am

Iraq… Senator Chuck Hagel has said that the U.S. “needs to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq within the next six months.” He’s sounding a lot like John Kerry these days…

Iraqis are “going to have to step up” and assume responsibility for defense of their country, Hagel told a telephone news conference from Washington.

In an editorial in Friday’s NY Times, Thomas Friedman calls on the Bush administration for Plan B in Iraq, stating that “the Bush team never gave us a Plan A for Iraq.” The plan that Friedman suggests in his column is a plan that accepts important parts of John Kerry’s Iraq plan, including the Dayton Accords like summit and getting our troops home. Yesterday on the Senate floor, Kerry renewed the call for a Dayton Accords like summit. I simply can’t say it enough here… John Kerry was right. Here’s Friedman’s column (from behind the wall)..

Time for Plan B
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
Published: August 4, 2006

It is now obvious that we are not midwifing democracy in Iraq. We are baby-sitting a civil war.

When our top commander in Iraq, Gen. John Abizaid, tells a Senate Committee, as he did yesterday, that “the sectarian violence is probably as bad as I’ve seen it,” it means that three years of efforts to democratize Iraq are not working. That means “staying the course” is pointless, and it’s time to start thinking about Plan B — how we might disengage with the least damage possible.

MORE & LINKS - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=3800

[wisteria]

1. Nice piece. Still, he could have mentioned Kerry at least once in

this piece. He writes it like this was all something he came up with. Hagel was mentioned, why not Kerry? After all, much of what he says is echoing Senator Kerry.