Iraq....Stay the Course and Leave

If you haven't already you should head over to TPM Cafe, there some good stuff over there, you will agree with some and disagree with some of the content but it's all well thought out. In a recent post David Gelber asks how do we get out of Iraq? The first comment nails it:

Maybe we should stay the course and get out. They are not mutually exclusive. I think the administration has an exit plan but isn't announcing it because it really is an abandonment of the country we attacked. The plan seems to be withdrawing to four large bases away from population centers, leaving those to Iraqi "security" (in the end, whatever faction controls that area) as a prelude to complete withdrawal. "withdrawing" to some permanent desert bases and announcing the occupation over is not going to satisfy anyone.


We don't have a constructive exit strategy because we've never had a constructive occupation strategy. Why is a federation of three autonomous regions off the table? If we leave, perhaps civil war will erupt but it is already going on. Our occupation is the cause of the resistance or "insurgency." We don't know who the insurgents really are because reporters dare not get close (understandably). How can you have any strategy if you don't know who the enemy is? The Pentagon describes them to fit whatever purpose of the day they need. But, whatever you say about the insurgents, their program is reactive to our occupation.

We're there to protect the interim government. We are not staying for the benefit of Iraqis and ultimately we will not be able to dictate our government of choice there. After all, we can train Iraqi forces to bust into homes in the middle of the night and brutalize families or to shell large sections of a town to get a couple of snipers. We have incarcerated tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis. We have killed tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis. Should we continue this because "we started it, so we have to see it through?" We have to leave sometime and whenever we go, we will leave a mess. The sooner the better, I say. I don't see how we are helping Iraq by staying. Are we staying for the Iraqi people (long or short term)? Ask an Iraqi on the street if they want the Americans to stay and the answer would likely be please, no.

We are not going to be able to stop civil war, it's already started. The US occupation is part of the problem so it can't be part of the solution. The problem is the Bush administration and the neocon's vision of victory; is control of the oil, control of the economy and permanent military bases to bully and threaten the rest of the region. That was always the goal.

Update
Blogenlust has a related parody.