Bipartisan Report Is So Much Blather
After all the fanfare, the bipartisan report on Iraq is a bit of a letdown. Yes, it paints a completely polar view of the problems in Iraq but comes short of damning the Bush administration for what is one of the most tragic foreign policy decisions in US history. But the report offers nothing new. All the information and ideas it offers are already out there, just not tied up into one neat package. There is no silver bullet.
I understand that the issues in Iraq and the Middle East are complex and steeped in centuries-old alliances and betrayals. Iraq's myriad problems may defy a silver bullet, but the bipartisan report offered nothing new. Granted, a published and highly reported refutal of the Bush administration's bully boy policies and assessment in Iraq is not without merit, but I was disappointed that the report committee did not take the opportunity to take a more decisive stand. While the report did place responsibility for solving Iraq's problems on the shoulders of Iraqi politicians, without proposing a timetable for US withdrawal it lacks the teeth to make them pay attention.
As seems to be the Arab way, Iraqi politicians will simply beat their chests, pontificating and procrastinating without ever taking action unless they are forced to the wall. As long as US troops patrol Iraq, its politicians have no incentive to settle their old scores and either compromise or split the country up along factional lines. They're quite content to let our troops take the heat and the blame -- and the bullets -- for problems they seem unwilling to solve. And let's be clear, the mire in Iraq has been there all along. True, by removing Saddam's iron fist the US destroyed the thin veneer that covered the bubbling ooze, but the noxious elements that erupted had been fermenting under the surface for decades, if not centuries.
What would happen if US troops left within the next few months? Iraq might plunge into greater chaos, full-blown civil war could erupt, but that is happening now. By removing US soldiers, Iraqi politicians would lose their convenient scapegoat and might actually find the impetus to solve their problems. Once we're gone, they'll only be able to blame the US for their problems for so long before Iraqi citizens call them to account.
There is nothing left for the US in Iraq. There is nothing left to salvage -- except a few thousand American lives. We'll never leave Iraq with our heads held high, let's at least leave while our troops can march out, not be carried out in coffins.
Get Iran and Syria involved blah blah enlist the support and assistance of the Middle Eastern states blah blah but Arabs only, not the Jews blah blah begin a gradual pullout of US troops blah blah blah.
I understand that the issues in Iraq and the Middle East are complex and steeped in centuries-old alliances and betrayals. Iraq's myriad problems may defy a silver bullet, but the bipartisan report offered nothing new. Granted, a published and highly reported refutal of the Bush administration's bully boy policies and assessment in Iraq is not without merit, but I was disappointed that the report committee did not take the opportunity to take a more decisive stand. While the report did place responsibility for solving Iraq's problems on the shoulders of Iraqi politicians, without proposing a timetable for US withdrawal it lacks the teeth to make them pay attention.
As seems to be the Arab way, Iraqi politicians will simply beat their chests, pontificating and procrastinating without ever taking action unless they are forced to the wall. As long as US troops patrol Iraq, its politicians have no incentive to settle their old scores and either compromise or split the country up along factional lines. They're quite content to let our troops take the heat and the blame -- and the bullets -- for problems they seem unwilling to solve. And let's be clear, the mire in Iraq has been there all along. True, by removing Saddam's iron fist the US destroyed the thin veneer that covered the bubbling ooze, but the noxious elements that erupted had been fermenting under the surface for decades, if not centuries.
What would happen if US troops left within the next few months? Iraq might plunge into greater chaos, full-blown civil war could erupt, but that is happening now. By removing US soldiers, Iraqi politicians would lose their convenient scapegoat and might actually find the impetus to solve their problems. Once we're gone, they'll only be able to blame the US for their problems for so long before Iraqi citizens call them to account.
There is nothing left for the US in Iraq. There is nothing left to salvage -- except a few thousand American lives. We'll never leave Iraq with our heads held high, let's at least leave while our troops can march out, not be carried out in coffins.
