Reply #12: We're going to be in Iraq for awhile, to some degree.

[calteacherguy]

Many Republicans would prefer a kind of never-ending war. That's not Clark's position.

One thing Clark has said is we need a public commitment to no permanent bases in Iraq. That's the long-term goal, but the next President is likely to inherit an Iraq with over 100,000 U.S. troops still present. Like or not, we are going to have to manage the mess the Republicans have left us, and we won't be able to simply leave as soon as physically possible when the Democratic President is inaugurated. We don't know what the situation is going to be, exactly, when we inherit the mess. Will, for example, the Republicans have bombed Iran, destabilizing the whole region? Will Iran respond by becoming more aggresive in Iraq? What then? So, we need to be prepared for a wide range of developments. Hopefully, somehow, the message that we need real diplomacy with Iran to stabilize iraq and deal with the nuclear issue will get through to the administration. If it doesn't, there are likely to be bombs falling on Iran before the next election, and it's hard to predict what all the results of that will be geopolitically...except that they won't be good.