Powell Says US Troops to Start Heading Home This Year

Secretary of State Colin Powell said earlier this week that there was a chance that US troops would start pulling out of Iraq later this year. Mr. Powell said that as Iraqi forces begin to shoulder the burden of security in that country, the US troops present will have a lighter load and can begin to come home. This would be exciting news except Mr. Powell’s credibility was rendered null and void after his WMD performance before the US Security Council in February 2003.

Vietnamization on the Euphrates has been the Bush administration’s exit strategy since the insurgency began a year and a half ago. And in the end, there is no other option. Patriotic Iraqis, like those who love their country anywhere, don’t want foreign troops in their cities. And patriotic Americans don’t want their troops killed except in the direst of circumstances (which calls into question the patriotism of the neo-cons who have slain 1,357 Americans thus far thanks to their misguided invasion). Both sides want the Americans out, and the only question is how.

As Mr. Powell told National Public Radio, "The issue now is not more American troops or coalition troops for the long haul, but more Iraqi troops for the long haul, and that's where all of our resources and energy are now going." Thus, the election on January 30 will create a pretend-democratic government that the not-quite-non-existent Iraqi security forces can defend. And, then, GI Joe can leave. Right now, the US is acting like an enabling friend, letting Iraqis get a free ride in security (such as it is), having the American boys and girls do their jobs for them. The US needs to get the Iraqi army and police up and running, and then, force them to do the job

Unfortunately, if the Bush administration is going to wait for the Iraqi government to act, American children as yet unborn will wind up serving in Iraq. As LBJ famously said, "Some . . . call upon the US to supply American boys to do the job that Asian boys should do." Right now, American boys and girls are doing the job that Iraqi kids ought to be doing. And Washington, not Baghdad, needs to say “enough.” Declare victory and get out was a popular idea in the Vietnam era, and frankly, it may be the only option for Mr. Bush – maybe he can call it “peace with honor.”

The search for WMD has been called off because there aren’t any. The election on January 30 may not be held in certain places because the security situation prevents it. The Iraqi Civil War is over a year old now, and the American body count keeps rising. Some might call it “cutting and running,” but the truth is that the US is now throwing good money after bad and is taking casualties pointlessly. America won the war and is rapidly losing the peace. Senator Kerry once asked a congressional hearing “How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?” Mr. Bush needs to figure out how before hundreds and thousands more precede that last man.

© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.

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