No exit strategy

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/25/opinion/ediraq.php

The American people have only one question left about Iraq: What is President George W. Bush's plan for a timely and responsible exit? That is the essential precondition for salvaging broader American interests in the Middle East and for waging a more effective fight against Al Qaeda in its base areas in Pakistan and Afghanistan. And it is exactly the question that Bush, his top generals and his diplomats so stubbornly and damagingly refuse to answer.

Tuesday provided two more frustrating and shameful examples of this denial. One was a new war plan drawn up by America's top military commander and top diplomat in Baghdad that will keep American troops fighting in Iraq at least until 2009. The other was yet one more speech by Bush that claimed that Iraq was the do-or-die front in the war on terrorism - rather than a rallying point for extremists and a never-ending drain on the resources America needs to fight that fight.

The war plan drawn up by General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker simply assumes that a large-scale United States military presence in Iraq will continue for at least two more years.

So much for Bush's soothing incantations about a relatively short-term "surge" of additional troops. The plan ignores the fact that the volunteer army cannot sustain a prolonged escalation without grievous losses in quality, readiness and morale. Even more unrealistically, the plan assumes that with two more years of an American blank check, Iraqi politicians will somehow decide to take responsibility for their political future.

[niceypoo]

1. They want the war to go on forever

It's a huge money making machine for republican donors. Its all about contracts that are never fulfilled with no oversight. Its a huge racketeering operation. Why would they want it to stop?

[Devlzown]

2. It's got to end asap.

We can't fix it any more than we could've fixed Vietnam.