Earlier this week, Iraq’s prime minister announced that he agreed in principle with Barack Obama’s plan to withdraw all US combat troops from Iraq in 16 months. McCain thinks US troops should remain for a hundred years or more.
Now that we know where the two prospective leaders of our country stand, and where the leader of the country we currently occupy stands, I’m curious about you stand on one of the top issues facing America. And by you, I mean you, the commenters on this blog, and you, Claire McCaskill, and you, Kit Bond, and you, Sam Graves, and you, Russ Carnahan, and so on, right through everyone in Missouri either serving in Congress or running a campaign to do so next year.
Do you agree in general with Obama and the prime minister of Iraq, or with John McCain? Where do you stand?
I’ll post the answers from electeds and candidates as I receive them through e-mail or in comments.
We must reverse Bush and Akin’s policy in Iraq, send a message to the Iraqi government that we don’t intend on occupying their country permanently, and begin an immediate and responsible “phased withdrawal” of our troops.
This means systematically redeploying those troops, bringing our national guard troops home, and reengaging the international community, including the UN into a peace-keeping role.
Most candidates like to discuss these issues as if they were running for Commander-in-Chief, that is, ‘here is my plan for Iraq’ — or — ‘this is my 10 year road map for the Iraq War’, etc.
And although there may be value in unpacking the ‘big picture’ here from an academic perspective, or just from a conversational one, as a Federal legislator for MO-2, I will be just one of 435 votes in the US House.
A progressive vote.
I will be working with the existing administration and my constituents to amplify, through votes and messaging, what I consider to be the most salient and productive policies on Iraq that the administration would like to engender.
Equally, those policies that I feel would be moving our country in the wrong direction, I can speak on those perceived flaws, and vote to oppose the funding of those positions. I applaud Rep. Russ Carnahan in MO-3 for not voting to fund the war in Iraq.
We will most likely maintain a significant diplomatic relationship with Iraq, indeed, even a strategic relationship. Depending on what plan is being forwarded by the new President in 2009, my personal opinion, if I were in the WH, would be to offer a bit of a mea culpa to the international community for all the damage GB has done to the reputation, stature and integrity of the United States due to the worst strategic blunder committed by our country in probably a hundred years — creating great swaths of human destruction and tragedy.
The big philosophical misstep Bush took was in defining international terrorism as a sovereign battle the US was to fight, as opposed to cornering attacks like those of 9/11 as being rogue acts of transnational criminality — to wit, you can’t fight the decentralized and asymmetrical nature of terrorism with traditional massed military deployments and occupations. I have said in the past that’s like trying to paddle a boat with a tennis racket. This is where the whole Iraq War premise fails to hold water.
Creating a massively different diplomatic relationship with the nations of the world after Bush leaves the Exec Branch is the first step.
Once the degradation of trust has leveled off, a focus on re-engaging the international community, bringing into play the pertinent stakeholders in a stabile and secure Middle East, should be combined with a withdrawal of our forces from Iraq.
I would work to replace some of that power vacuum created with peace keepers, perhaps non-Arab, non-Kurd, non-Persian Muslim Bangladeshi peacekeepers, to prevent an explosion of sectarian genocide, etc. In this, Barack Obama’s recent statements this morning in the press conference he participated in were right on the mark. Of course, we as a nation have a responsibility to strategically hand hold the Iraqis into maintaining a sovereign and independent national security plan.
What would happen with the current behemoth US embassy compound would be entirely dependant on the specific nature of our withdrawal, and the manner in which that power vacuum is filled by Iraqi security forces, international peacekeepers, and any additional strategic support we would be providing. The guidance and leadership of our new President will drive how the Iraq War narrative unfolds.
I’m reminded on a story our football coach at Principia used to tell us – he used to say,
“Men… what’s the most consistently successful offensive play we have?”
Guys would say, end run sweep, forward pass, etc.
“Nope. It’s the punt.”
I believe we need to punt in Iraq.