Linkmeister

Reality bites

From an op-ed in today's WaPo:

Second, to expect any Iraqi leader who can hold his country together to be pro-American, or to share American goals, is to abandon common sense. It took the United States more than a century to get over its hostility toward British occupation. (In 1914, a majority of the public favored supporting Germany against Britain.) Every month of the U.S. occupation, polls have recorded Iraqis' rising animosity toward the United States. Even supporters of an American military presence say that it is acceptable temporarily and only to prevent either of the warring sides in Iraq from winning. Today the Iraqi government survives only because its senior members and their families live within the heavily guarded Green Zone, which houses the U.S. Embassy and military command.

That's retired General William Odom. He lists four myths he says Congress has to get over:

• We must continue the war to prevent the terrible aftermath that will occur if our forces are withdrawn soon.
• We must continue the war to prevent Iran's influence from growing in Iraq.
• We must prevent the emergence of a new haven for al-Qaeda in Iraq.
• We must continue to fight in order to "support the troops."

He calmly refutes all four, then offers several suggestions on how to proceed.

• Fighting on merely prolongs our losses, so stop
• Recognize that the US alone cannot stabilize the Middle East
• Most of our polices right now destabilize the region
• The region must be stabilized, with or without a democratic Iraq

This is old-fashioned Realpolitik, but it's a damn sight better than the neocon fantasies we've been pursuing.

Posted by Linkmeister at February 11, 2007 01:58 PM | TrackBack