How Do We Leave?

Since finally, someone on the side of the Democrats has uttered that foul word, withdrawal, maybe the rest of the leaders in this country don't have to worry about being called nasty names by the Republicans. No one had ever even noticed John Murtha before he had the courage to stand up and say something that clearly needed to be said in Washington, and not on the streets of everyday people, but in the halls of power. He has seemed to have survived being called a traitor and a coward, so now that the Republicans have done their worst, some other brave unknown Congressman should do the same. We will not be able to end this nightmare, until we figure out how to withdraw and leave some sort of country for those people who escape the bloodbath.

As satisfying as it is watching the wheels come off of the Bush Administration these last few weeks, the reality in Iraq continues to degenerate. Just in the last several days, on Friday 85 were killed in a mosque in a town north of Baghdad and Saturday, 50 (including 5 Americans) were killed in another incident to the south of the city. As we dick around with name-calling and other childish reasons to refrain from making plans for ending the violence, real people face real danger, not just Americans, but civilians who did not ask for this bloodshed. While our leaders fear the names that the nasty Republicans throw around, people die in large numbers and horrible ways every day.

As much as we'd like to withdraw today, it would be impossible given the state of security. But why not set a date? We have set these unrealistic dates for things before, elections, and constitutions, why not set a goal for withdrawal, or even a partial withdrawal by say six months from now? It might make whoever is in charge over there, (is there anyone?) more likely to make a concerted effort to train Iraqi troops. Why not let security forces be supported by neighboring states like Saudi Arabia, and Iran? These countries have a vested interest in a peaceful solution, and no matter how much we dislike these two countries, they are not going to go away anytime soon. The sooner we get the source of anger out of Iraq, the sooner we might have a chance at peace.

Or a chance for civil war. But how much worse could it be than it was this weekend?

But I like Juan Cole's idea of withdrawing the American forces to Kuwait, where they would be not too far away if things went totally crazy. We could still continue to offer air support to the struggling Iraqi army, although in this type of insurgency, I think air strikes do more harm than good in such populated areas.

The thing is, this administration doesn't really want to leave, ever. What they wanted was regime change, and they have accomplished that, yet still we stayed. We can all easily guess at the reason they don't want to leave.

I love it when these SUV's blow by me on my bike with those yellow ribbons all supportive of our troops. It gives me these patriotic goosebumps. Here is all this support, and not one of these drivers is willing to give up 10 miles to a gallon, to make these oil wars unnecessary and obsolete. If you support our troops, take the bus.

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