Liberals and Neocons agree that the U.S. led disaster in Iraq is due to the "devastating dysfunction within the Bush administration."
The uniter-not-a-divider guy is finally doing some uniting.
Neocons now rage in "despair, and fury at the incompetence of the Bush administration," while liberals such as Nicholas Kristof observe that incompetence and behaving like an Empire are one and the same thing.
Kristof argues that it's time for a timetable, or it is time to announce that we intend to cut and walk.
Cut and Walk
By Nicholas Kristof
Our military presence risks expanding the civil war in another way. As we side more openly with the Shiite government in its struggle against Sunni insurgents, Saudi Arabia — already nervous about the rise of Shiites — is hinting that it may help the Sunnis defend themselves. We could end up with a war in which Iran and Iraqi Shiites battle against Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Iraqi Sunni Arabs. (That’s when gas prices reach $5 a gallon.)
So let’s raise our E.Q. and take account of Iraqi emotions and nationalist sensitivities, particularly alarm about American bases on Iraqi soil. For starters, we can (as Don Rumsfeld noted in his leaked memo) quickly give back up to 50 of our 55 military bases in Iraq.
We should also state clearly that we will not keep any permanent military bases in Iraq. That’s not going to persuade the extremist insurgents, but polls suggest that such an announcement would reduce the support that extremists get from ordinary Iraqis. That’s a simple step that would save American and Iraqi lives.
The same logic argues for a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq, ending by November 2007. Granted, there is a real risk that the bloodbath will worsen significantly when we leave. But Iraqis themselves say overwhelmingly in polls that our presence is inflaming the violence rather than reducing it, and a timetable would be a useful signal that we really are going to pull out and that Iraqi factions need to conciliate and address their own problems.
We needn’t cut and run. But let’s post a schedule, and then cut and walk.
Read the whole thing
Nicholas Kristof Bush Politics Iraq War News Republicans Neocons Civil War
