Enough is Enough in Iraq

This war has dragged on too long, longer than our involvement in World War II. Staying the course isn’t working and I, for one, am not convinced it ever will. The only way we can succeed in Iraq is to fundamentally change the dynamic. The language embraces this idea by offering a new plan, one that eventually should allow for our forces to be withdrawn from Iraq.

The proposal establishes a goal of redeploying most of our forces from Iraq in the next 12 months. It doesn’t mandate that all the troops are removed by that date. To the contrary, it mandates that forces remain in Iraq to protect United States and coalition personnel. It also stipulates that U.S. forces continue to train and equip the Iraqis, so that they can better defend themselves, and it directs that we continue counter-terrorist operations in Iraq. This is a balanced plan. It recognizes that we still have military responsibilities in Iraq, and will continue to do so even a year from now, but it will force the Iraqis to fight their own civil war if they insist on doing so.

We all know that there are very few military objectives to be achieved in Iraq. We defeated the Iraqi army four years ago. We won that part of the war, the part that the military can win. We failed in not preparing for the aftermath of direct conflict and now we are enmeshed in an untenable position. Our military has performed remarkably. They have achieved their military objectives. But the plan to rely on the military to achieve political objectives has not worked. And what we need is a political solution.

We can stay in Iraq for the next year, or five years, or even ten years fighting a protracted civil war. Many of our brave young men and women will continue to die; many more will come home seriously injured. And, at the end, how many of us truly still believe we will emerge victorious, with a Jeffersonian democracy on the banks of the Tigris River?

Or, we can embrace a new plan that begins to reshape our forces in Iraq to provide those missions that our military is best suited for with a goal, not a mandate, but a goal of redeploying the remaining forces one year from now. If Iraq is to succeed, it must assume responsibility for its own destiny, it must decide if it wants to stop internecine warfare. We cannot do that for them.