Exit Strategy

We have created a mess in Iraq. We’ve freed a country persecuted by a brutal dictator and made it into a haven for terrorism and the training of jihadis. The Iraqis are living with a deteriorating infrastructure and facing a civil war, if what occurs daily isn’t one already. The costs to the US have been catastrophic. The major issue facing us is to determine whether we stay or go. The question is whether our presence is the only thing keeping Iraq from falling into complete chaos: will Iraq change from being Bleeding Kansas to Antietam? Or is our presence the catalyst that motivates the insurgency while allowing Iraqi politicians to act like politicians rather than statesmen feeling they are not accountable because they are not in control?

As much as I disdain the reasons that brought us into Iraq – false or misleading arguments ignoring reality, belief that a war would serve Bush’s re-election chances, and a desire to spend US resources so that they could then deny domestic programs not aimed at business or the rich, I believe precipitously pulling out of Iraq without creating a chance for the country to survive and succeed is wrong.

Zbigniew Brzezinski, Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor, and an articulate and knowledgeable foreign policy observer, proposed a four point program leading to our withdrawal that merits discussion. It puts stability in the region as the main goal instead of our fanciful claim of bringing freedom to the Middle East. It is promulgated by Iraqis and other interested parties and gets us out of being the sole actor trying to resolve the crisis without leaving a dangerous vacuum. Since Bush yesterday said that it would be up to subsequent president’s to get us out of Iraq this discussion will probably not happen within this administration.

In responding to a question from Margaret Warner on Monday’s NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, Brzezinski said:

I think the benefits [to the US] have been, in fact, very few, beyond the obvious one: the removal of Saddam Hussein. But we have undermined our international legitimacy. That's a very high cost to a superpower.

We have destroyed our credibility; no one believes anything the president says anymore. We have tarnished our morality with Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. These are phenomenal costs. And there's, of course, blood and money and tens of thousands of Iraqi killed.

So, in my view, the time has come to face all of this, to realize that staying for a prolonged period of time until some ephemeral victory is not the solution. It is time to leave.

And I think a four-point program could be implemented that would permit us to leave in a fashion that would not be a debacle: Ask the Iraqi government to ask us to leave, first of all. And some would ask us. Some have already asked us, in fact.

Secondly, concert with the Iraqi government on the date of our departure, so it's a joint decision, I would think in about a year.

Third, the Iraqi government then convenes a conference of neighbors, Muslim neighbors, who are interested in continued stability in Iraq and in helping to prevent a civil war from exploding.

And fourth, arrange a donors conference for the recovery of Iraq. We could do that. I think we'd be better off if we did it; otherwise we're stuck, and this is getting worse and worse. The region is becoming more destabilized and hostile to us.