Senator Dodd Says It's Time to Withdraw

No one should pretend at this late date that Dick Cheney or George W. Bush will get it right. Senator Dodd has an article in the Des Moines Register:

The time has come for the United States to begin the process of getting our troops out of Iraq.

In Baghdad last week, I joined in a conversation with a West Point graduate who is serving in Iraq. He said, "Senator, it is nuts over here. Soldiers are being asked to do work we're not trained to do. I'm doing work that State Department people are far more prepared to do in fostering democracy, but they're not allowed to come off the bases because it's too dangerous here. It doesn't make any sense."

After spending six days in the Middle East last week - which included visits with the top leaders in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Israel - it's hard not to come to the same conclusion: Our strategy in Iraq makes no sense. It never really did. It is as bad in person as it appears on television. There are literally dozens of sects, militias, gangs, warlords, foreign terrorists and others killing one another for dozens of reasons in Iraq today, and American troops are caught in the crossfire.

Our brave men and women have done everything asked of them with great courage and honor, but searching for military solutions in Iraq today is a fool's errand. True peace and security in Iraq will not come at the end of an American gun. It will only happen to the degree that Iraq's leaders are willing to take responsibility for governing their own country and securing their own future.

Senator Dodd is making sense. We need to hear more from him and even if his odds of winning the Democratic nomination are slim, I hope he enters the race.

An increasing number of Americans, including Democrats, independents, the bipartisan members of the Iraq Study Group, the majority of voters in Novembers and even a growing number of Republicans say its time to draw down in Iraq. We've done as much as we're going to do without wasting more lives, money and years of effort for a minimal benefit that may never arrive. We're in Iraq because right wingers needed a cause to unify the Republican Party. That's a lousy way to begin the 21st century. We need to get out of Iraq before the Republican right wing gives us a war that could last generations.

War is the wrong way to bring democracy to the world. It is absurd and it was clear from the beginning that democracy at the point of a gun makes no sense. There are better ways, and we've been using those ways for sixty years with greater success. It's time to get back to doing what we do best: using all our resources within reason to improve international cooperation while reserving war as a last resort. For most Americans, Afghanistan met the criteria of a necessary war. Iraq did not. We're in danger of losing both war thanks to the incompetence of the current administration and the jingoism of their right wing supporters who have so clearly revealed to the world that they haven't a clue. The greatest nation in the world shouldn't let such ignorant and mean-spirited authoritarians tell the rest of the world what democracy and free speech means. Like I said, they haven't a clue. But the good news is that the real America is coming back.

From time to time, everyone needs to renew themselves and that's a good thing to do in this holiday season. Enjoy the holidays but remember our nation has serious work to do and we will celebrate many more holidays before we put the worst of these troubled times behind us. Renew old acquaintance and remember always the season where we hope and pray for Peace on Earth.