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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group

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To: Hawkmoon who wrote (125606)	3/4/2004 9:02:47 PM
From: GST	Read Replies (2) of 281500

1) Acknowledge the depth of the mistake: Until we do this there is no way to move forward at all. 2) Restore some faith in the Defense Department: Fire Rumsfeld and clean house by purging the neocons. 3) Recognize that full extent of the civil war and regional war threat: By pretending that things are getting better and that we should just stay longer we are lulling ourselves to sleep while Rome burns. 4) Tell the American people the truth. Come clean about what are true options what are the true costs and the true risks. Whatever we do it will be costly and their is no free solution. People are going to keep on dying and staying is going to cost a fortune. This must be reflected in the federal budget. 5) Hold elections in Iraq by the end of the year -- do not allow voting from outside Iraq (only people residing in Iraq should vote). The elections will be deeply flawed, violent and the results are certain to be held in contempt -- but given what we have promised we have no choice but to at least pretend to be able to establish a democratically elected government. 6) Give up all economic and political control to the UN now and to Iraqis by the end of the year -- understanding that civil and regional war are definite possibilities if we do. 7) Maintain a military presence so long as it is permitted by Iraq itself -- if the new Government says "leave" we must leave. If we are not asked to leave, we should plan to stay for five years and then we should leave. We should not have a permanent base in Iraq. The probable outcome from all of this? Many more deaths, some form of civil war, continued regional instability and an increase in terrorism. There is a reason why sane people advised against a unilateral invasion -- people advised against it because there would not be a good outcome. They were right. We will eventually withdraw in some manner similar to what I have outlined -- the emphasis is and will be increasingly on damage control. No children will fly kites in the streets when we leave. No children flew kites when we arrived. Self-interested and ideologically driven parties fanned the flames of war and like fools we stepped in and got burned. Now the goal is to stop the bleeding. Our military have served brilliantly -- our politicians have failed miserably.

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