Corporate Shills Say Leaving Iraq's Gonna Take A While
I've got no commentary at this time. Just a freakin' predictable stomach ache.
Alright, just briefly though: While I admire Richardson's gusto, I do think he's needlessly over simplifying the pullout.
And Edwards' reasoning, as given in this article, jibes well with everything else I've heard him say on the matter. We would have some obligation to stick around a wee bit longer should such a Genocidal scenario appear to be in process. Otherwise, Get out! GET OUT!
From The NYTimes, via Common Dreams
(M)any Democrats are increasingly taking the position, in televised debates and in sessions with voters across the country, that ending a war can be as complicated as starting one.“We’ve got to be prepared to control a civil war if it starts to spill outside the borders of Iraq,” Mr. Edwards, who has run hard against the war, said at a Democratic debate in Chicago this week. “And we have to be prepared for the worst possibility that you never hear anyone talking about, which is the possibility that genocide breaks out and the Shi’a try to systematically eliminate the Sunni. As president of the United States, I would plan and prepare for all those possibilities.”
Most of the Democratic candidates mention the significant military and logistical difficulties in bringing out American troops, which even optimistic experts say would take at least a year. The candidates are not only trying to retain flexibility for themselves in the event they become president, aides said, but are also hoping to tamp down any expectation that the war would abruptly end if they were elected. Most have not proposed specific troop levels or particular rules of engagement for a continued presence in Iraq, saying the conditions more than a year from now remain too uncertain.
In political terms, their strategies are a balancing act. In her public appearances, Mrs. Clinton often says, “If this president does not end this war before he leaves office, when I am president, I will.” But she has affirmed in recent months remarks she made to The New York Times in March, when she said that there were “remaining vital national security interests in Iraq” that would require a continuing deployment of American troops. The United States’ security, she said then, would be undermined if part of Iraq turned into a failed state” that serves as a Petri dish for insurgents and Al Qaeda.”
Freakin' disingenuous pols . . . {sigh}
Personally, I rarely even write about Iraq any more. No one knows what to do and we dont seem to be learning anything from it. The whole country seems to be paralyzed by the fear of what might happen if we pull out. Such paralysis would have been a good idea before we went in, but the drum beaters were to busy telling people like me and my wife to move to Germany (we were literally told this by our wife's sister).
ReplyDeleteThe whole thing is a complete mess. People won't even talk about it any more.
Of course, that will change when Bush's little yes man goes in front of Congress next month with all his gold stars on his pressed uniform and tells them exactly what he is ordered to tell them....something along the lines of "the surge is working and we need to spend 24 months in there and reevaulate everything. "
I've been so pissed off for so long by the lies, ineptness and outright criminality of this administration that I am ready and eager to listen to a candidate who promises to correct the problems on Day One of his/her first term. Let's face it: These corrections are urgently needed for the health of the republic.
ReplyDeleteBut I know that we can't remove all those troops and all that dangerous hardware and all those support people overnight while at the same time making sure everything doesn't descend even farther into chaos. We got in there pretty fast because the Bush Administration did it wrong. They didn't prepare, they didn't get international consensus or assistance, they didn't mount a large enough force, blah, blah, blah, I'm sure you know the litany. But realistically, we can't get out as fast as we got in. It only takes a second to break a window -- repairing the damage is a much more time-consuming process.
So when the Democrats hold back in bragging about how fast they will bring the troops home, I give them some slack.
I will not, however, help nominate anyone who voted to give Bush war powers and who refuses to repudiate that vote, or who talks about keeping a force in Iraq to assist an essentially fake "democracy" maintain order.