International Herald Tribune Editorial - No exit strategy
International Herald Tribune Editorial - No exit strategy
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune
Published: July 25, 2007
The American people have only one question left about Iraq: What is President George W. Bush's plan for a timely and responsible exit? That is the essential precondition for salvaging broader American interests in the Middle East and for waging a more effective fight against Al Qaeda in its base areas in Pakistan and Afghanistan. And it is exactly the question that Bush, his top generals and his diplomats so stubbornly and damagingly refuse to answer.
Tuesday provided two more frustrating and shameful examples of this denial. One was a new war plan drawn up by America's top military commander and top diplomat in Baghdad that will keep American troops fighting in Iraq at least until 2009. The other was yet one more speech by Bush that claimed that Iraq was the do-or-die front in the war on terrorism - rather than a rallying point for extremists and a never-ending drain on the resources America needs to fight that fight.
The war plan drawn up by General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker simply assumes that a large-scale United States military presence in Iraq will continue for at least two more years.
So much for Bush's soothing incantations about a relatively short-term "surge" of additional troops. The plan ignores the fact that the volunteer army cannot sustain a prolonged escalation without grievous losses in quality, readiness and morale. Even more unrealistically, the plan assumes that with two more years of an American blank check, Iraqi politicians will somehow decide to take responsibility for their political future.
Petraeus and Crocker may feel they have little choice but to project the administration's flawed policies to their logical, or illogical, conclusions. Bush does have a choice and a clear obligation to re-evaluate strategy when everything, but his own illusions, tells him that it is failing. Instead, he spoke Tuesday as if the latest National Intelligence Estimate had not found Al Qaeda's top leadership regrouped and resurgent along the Pakistani-Afghan frontier. Or as if the latest bleak assessment of the Iraqi government's political and economic failures had never been issued. Bush proposed no realistic new plan for more effectively fighting Al Qaeda or for exiting from Iraq.
Prolonging the war for another two years will not bring victory. It will mean more lives lost, more damage to America's international standing and fewer resources to fight the real fight against terrorists. If Bush's advisers can't tell him that, Congress will have to - with a veto-proof majority.
Copyright by The International Herald Tribune
Published: July 25, 2007
The American people have only one question left about Iraq: What is President George W. Bush's plan for a timely and responsible exit? That is the essential precondition for salvaging broader American interests in the Middle East and for waging a more effective fight against Al Qaeda in its base areas in Pakistan and Afghanistan. And it is exactly the question that Bush, his top generals and his diplomats so stubbornly and damagingly refuse to answer.
Tuesday provided two more frustrating and shameful examples of this denial. One was a new war plan drawn up by America's top military commander and top diplomat in Baghdad that will keep American troops fighting in Iraq at least until 2009. The other was yet one more speech by Bush that claimed that Iraq was the do-or-die front in the war on terrorism - rather than a rallying point for extremists and a never-ending drain on the resources America needs to fight that fight.
The war plan drawn up by General David Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker simply assumes that a large-scale United States military presence in Iraq will continue for at least two more years.
So much for Bush's soothing incantations about a relatively short-term "surge" of additional troops. The plan ignores the fact that the volunteer army cannot sustain a prolonged escalation without grievous losses in quality, readiness and morale. Even more unrealistically, the plan assumes that with two more years of an American blank check, Iraqi politicians will somehow decide to take responsibility for their political future.
Petraeus and Crocker may feel they have little choice but to project the administration's flawed policies to their logical, or illogical, conclusions. Bush does have a choice and a clear obligation to re-evaluate strategy when everything, but his own illusions, tells him that it is failing. Instead, he spoke Tuesday as if the latest National Intelligence Estimate had not found Al Qaeda's top leadership regrouped and resurgent along the Pakistani-Afghan frontier. Or as if the latest bleak assessment of the Iraqi government's political and economic failures had never been issued. Bush proposed no realistic new plan for more effectively fighting Al Qaeda or for exiting from Iraq.
Prolonging the war for another two years will not bring victory. It will mean more lives lost, more damage to America's international standing and fewer resources to fight the real fight against terrorists. If Bush's advisers can't tell him that, Congress will have to - with a veto-proof majority.
posted by Carlos T Mock at 9:48 AM
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