Supporters of staying the course in Iraq who insist exit strategies are anti-American and defeatist are correct if they mean ones that do not call for the immediate withdrawal of troops (they don’t). If crafted so to mollify these critics, why bother? Any formulae that prioritises reeling in malleable partisans is morally defunct. So goes this exit strategy some Democrats are supporting to be delivered as a petition to Congress on September 15, 2005.
First, as a confidence-building measure, the U.S. government must declare that it has no interest in permanent military bases or the control of Iraqi oil or other resources.
Declarations are cheap. Congress should freeze all funds earmarked for this occupation, prohibit construction of bases and prisons, and independent contractors should be dismissed. And as Phyllis Bennis and Erik Leaver suggested in January ’05, “the U.S. military should cease all offensive actions and depart from population centers.” Immediately.
Second, as a further confidence-building measure, the U.S. government must set goals for ending the occupation and bringing all our troops home – in months, not years, beginning with an initial withdrawal of troops by the end of this year.
The only timetable necessary should be for planes departing non-stop from Baghdad Int’l or other airstrips the Pentagon has made operational. What purpose is served by delaying the withdrawal of troops?
Third, Fourth and Fifth are self-serving, desperate attempts to save face. The United States has no record of success in Middle East peace negotiations. It has been a dishonest broker between Israelis and Palestinians that continues to rewrite historical facts in order to stultify critics of US/Israel policies and further its own imperialistic goals. And since the United Nations has not pulled the US seat from the Security Council table, at the very least suspended it for crimes against humanity, that organisation is corrupt beyond usefullness.
If criminals broke into your house, murdered your parents, raped your sisters, tortured your brothers, how should their insistence they direct your future be received?