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Politics : View from the Center and Left
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To: JohnM who wrote (72805)6/18/2008 9:58:15 AM
From: Dale Baker  Read Replies (2) of 542655
 
"The U.S. military is still needed as referee. It still is not clear that Iraq is a country that can be held together by anything other than an iron fist. It’s still not clear that its government is anything more than a collection of sectarian fiefs.

It is this volatile swirl that will likely greet the next president: the deep desire of the U.S. public to be finished with Iraq because of the huge costs; the glimmer of hope that a decent outcome, one that might redeem some of those costs, is still possible; and the fact that Iraq still has not cohered as a country yet.

We can continue debating the merits of the war all we want until Jan. 20, 2009, but from that day forward there will be only one question for the next president: In light of these three conflicting trends, what are you planning to do with the Iraq you’re inheriting?

If McCain is the next commander in chief, the U.S. military will tell him on day one that we can’t stay in Iraq at the present troop levels indefinitely because the cost to our armed forces is becoming unbearable; if it is Obama, the Iraqis will tell him on day one that we can’t leave Iraq precipitously because it will explode."

Friedman is one of the only objective voices left on Iraq. His back and forth analysis points the way to a phased withdrawal over a couple of years with careful attention paid to what we leave behind, if we can keep adding stability while we wind down.

It's the only sustainable and sensible policy I can see. And since we know that Obama won't pull out everybody on day one - far, far from it - it lines up more with his side than McCain's open-ended rhetoric, IMHO.
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