With Iraq descending ever further into chaos and civil war, the first order of business of the new Democratic Congress when it convenes in January must be to pass a resolution establishing a clear and expeditious timeline for the withdrawal of US forces. Such a resolution would not only reflect the will of the American people; it would offer the only reasonable course of action. The inescapable truth is that the Bush Administration--first with its illegal and unjustified invasion and then with its divide-and-rule occupation--has produced in Iraq a strategic and human catastrophe of untold proportions. There is nothing we can responsibly do except withdraw US troops and work with other nations to keep the civil war and chaos from spreading to neighboring countries while providing humanitarian relief to Iraq's victims.
The only clear accomplishment of the US presence in Iraq has been to create more enemies. There is little American troops can do to stop the killing because they are mistrusted, if not hated, by nearly all sides. An overwhelming majority of Iraqis consider American troops a destabilizing force, even the enemy. In a September poll by the University of Maryland, 78 percent of Iraqis said that the US military is "provoking more conflict than it is preventing"; 71 percent, including 74 percent of Shiites and 91 percent of Sunnis, want US soldiers out within a year or less; and 61 percent of Iraqis favor attacks on American troops. Given this hostile popular sentiment, how can these troops possibly stay? Sending in more troops, as some prominent members of Congress have proposed, to intervene against both the Sunni insurgency and the Shiite militias would only cause more US and Iraqi casualties and create yet more hostility. Ending the occupation is the only sensible option.
The focus of American policy, therefore, must shift from trying to stabilize Iraq with a failed occupation to working with other countries to help Iraqis cope with the humanitarian crisis that US policy created and to keep the civil war from spreading beyond Iraq. These goals can best be pursued through an international, UN-sanctioned humanitarian mission, perhaps a joint UN and Arab League initiative. Muslim countries like Indonesia have offered to provide more assistance, even troops, if the United States ends the occupation. Only by removing American forces, and ending all claims to permanent bases, can the United States increase the possibility that other countries will assist Iraqis. The United States must help by providing money and logistical assistance, such as the sea- and air-lifting of supplies and refugees, and by signaling clearly through its deeds that the era of failed coercive us-versus-them diplomacy is over. In addition to supporting an international humanitarian effort, the United States should work with other UN Quartet members (the European Union, Russia and the United Nations) to organize a regional conference of neighboring states, including Syria and Iran, to obtain their cooperation in containing sectarian violence and resolving the ongoing conflicts in Iraq, Palestine and Lebanon.
Nearly 3,000 American men and women have been killed in Iraq since the war began, and more than 20,000 have been wounded or maimed. We have spent $350 billion on the war and plan to spend more in the coming year. How many more American men and women must die, and how much more treasure must Americans offer up, before our leaders have the courage and common sense to admit that there is nothing we can now accomplish that would make right the catastrophe the Administration created with its unprovoked and unlawful invasion of Iraq? That is the question we demand an answer to, and we need to do so every day until the President sets a timeline for the withdrawal of American forces--or Congress does it for him.
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20061218/editorsIt is indeed, time to leave.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(317 posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
