NO TIMETABLE, REALLY!

In his speech to the nation the other night, President Bush said that if we stay the course in Iraq we can win. Is that true? It all depends on how you define victory. If that triumph equates to the victory that Senator George Aiken of Vermont supported for Vietnam: a declaration of victory and a quick trip home for our troops, it shouldn’t be much of a problem. If on the other hand, we mean something akin to the defeat inflicted upon Japanese nation and the remake of the government of that country accomplished after World War II, I’m not nearly so sure.

Let’s be frank, we’re viewed as infidels by true believers in the Islamic world, and they are more than a little uncomfortable with us occupying a country central to that civilization. Wouldn’t Westerners be slightly out of whack if France had the huge oil reserves of Iraq and was being occupied by the Egyptian army; especially, if the occupiers had toppled even our favorite Frenchman in the process, dear old Jacques Chirac. Despite France being a secular corner of Christianity and quite unloved by Americans at this time, many Western Christians – even a few from the U.S. - would be entering the country from across the borders with Spain and the Low Countries trying to undermine the occupiers and punish the French security forces collaborating with the infidel occupiers.

What have we wrought in Iraq? At best, we’ve toppled a corrupt and aggressive regime and replaced it with a puppet government that we are propping up until some sort of legitimate power can come along, hopefully one that can defend itself and will remain relatively dependent on us for its continued well being. Read that as meaning it will continue to pump oil to the markets of the world with some degree of security from insurgents or terrorists, however those labels are defined. It’s likely that most of the Arab countries and those other powers geographically nearby would not be too offended by this outcome, providing the U.S. were clearly not creating a puppet that required our indefinite physical presence over many decades.

Almost all supporters of the president and the preventive war undertaken in Iraq and a majority of those of us who thought the attack was illegal, immoral, and stupid now see this as the best possible outcome – one worth further sacrifice. That said, we’ve got to get going. No more lies from the administration, no more Pollyanna B.S. from Dick Cheney about how wonderfully well things are going in Iraq and how the insurgency is in its last throes.

The President and Secretary Rumsfeld are going to have to stop treating the nation's citizens like a bunch retarded jackasses. And let's just drop the usual pap that if the commanders in Iraq want more troops, all they have to do is ask. Those military bureaucrats know that asking is not how they’re going to win promotions and Medals of Freedom. The President has to cave on this point. He’s got to offer more troops, arms and armaments and make it clear that those who take the offer aren’t going to be sent to Iraq if they do. Oops, I forgot; they’re already in that armpit.

No one has publicly acknowledged the dream of strategic bases in Iraq to defend against incursion from the Iran and other countries to the west. Most of us believe that was part of the reason for the war, but the President has got to say it isn’t in our plans. We’re not going to set up permanently in the Iraqi desert. One more dream probably harbored by the neocons just has to be skewered for the benefit of those Westerners opposed to the war and for Muslims everywhere.

The President refuses to set a timetable for withdrawing our troops. He says that if we did that the terrorists would just wait for that date and have at us as we left. That’s partially true – the part about them throwing rocks at the ships carrying our troops away. The terrorists already know we can’t stand the heat and that we’re as good as gone, but if it makes the people who made this war happy, we’ll play along with their charade. We won’t set a timetable for withdrawal.

That said, the Iraqis in power and those who will come to power over the next few years have to know that we’re leaving – very soon but without a timetable, mind you. We’ll set them up with sufficient troops, police and equipment to defend themselves and their institutions, and then we’ll leave. They also have to know that we’re not coming back. We can’t. They have to sink or swim without our troops.

Those who would topple or take over the new government have to understand that our financial and security support would end as soon as they made a move on the government. We may not be able to come back and occupy Iraq, but we still have lot’s money, airplanes, and cruise missiles and it’s likely that we could re-topple them. We sure made life miserable for Saddam without attacking; too bad we changed our policy

The bottom line is that the administration and the neocons have created a catastrophe for America. Our allies knew it and tried to warn them; our competitors and enemies knew it and loved it; many Americans knew it and begged them not to; but they prevailed and here we are. We broke the pottery, and we’re sure as hell paying for it. We may own it, but we’re more than willing to give it back in whatever state of repair we manage and with lots more glue and money.

The terrorists know that that they’ve got us by our privates. That we can whip them in Iraq and it will be over is a joke. We may be able to drive them out of Iraq, but if we don’t leave, it will never end. The American people know that they’re being lied to. All we want is for Bush to get us out of this mess that he created. We all know that there were no weapons of mass destruction and that Saddam wasn’t playing footsy with Osama.

But the situation has changed since our fatal move. The jihadists are now really in Iraq, and we’ve got to establish a government that can handle them. The key ingredient in the new situation is that we must leave as quickly as possible and stop this mad talk of reforming another civilization. Democracy for the Iraqis, Saudis, Indonesians or any other country must come from within. All the ranting by Bush about reforming the world has got to stop

Train those Iraqis, send more troops. Stop the lying and start getting ready to vacate the premises.

It is said that Americans hate Congress but love their Congressman. If your Congressman is supporting this mad venture with any more than an eye to leave, vote him or her a great new retirement package and get them into a glamorous new career on K Street.

Regardless of how this comes out, support divided government. A government with one party controlling the White House and both Houses of Congress brought us this fiasco just as another one brought us Vietnam. Don’t perpetuate it. Think about it; your vote counts!

Blog On!

Wild Bill