A reader of this site who identifies himself as Greg sends the following, which I felt like answering here…
I'm going to assume that you don't want us to leave Iraq 100%, right now. I'm going to assume we both agree that we should help Iraq become a country stable and safe enough to govern itself, as much as possible, as soon as possible.
So, unless I'm assuming incorrectly — how would you recommend we go about that? Solutions are what don't seem to be coming from the left. And the few solutions that sort of, kind of seem to be mentioned, seem to sound like ways to lose in Iraq rather than the above.
This message incorporates a couple of (to me) false assumptions. One is inherent in the reference to solutions not coming from "the left." With many prominent Conservative voices saying the same thing that the Cindy Sheehans of the world are saying, this has long since stopped being a left/right issue. The AP-Ipsos poll today (this one) says that 70% of all Americans oppose The Surge. This is not because 70% of Americans are left-wingers.
Frankly, Greg, I don't know if we should just pull out of Iraq right now. Knowing that is not my job. But I do think that those keeping us there should be open to a possibility being suggested by a lot of folks experienced in military actions and/or geopolitics. It's that our options are coming down to (a) pulling out now and having a certain level of disaster descend on Iraq…or (b) pulling out at some point in the future, having the same or worse level of disaster hit Iraq then, and a staggering number of American lives and dollars lost unnecessarily in the interim. Those who oppose this war now may not have a proposal to make everything in Iraq hunky-dory…but I don't see that those who favor staying having any plan beyond "Let's keep trying all those things that haven't worked at all the way we predicted."
I'm not sure if I want us to leave Iraq 100% right now. What I want is for us to have leaders who would do that if that's our least objectionable alternative…and George W. Bush has not convinced me — along with an awful lot of people who once voted for him — that he could make that call.
So no, I don't have a Plan B. I'm not sure anyone does, unless it's to cut our losses and get out. I don't have to have a Plan B to suggest that Plan A ain't working. If my doctor prescribes something and my fingernails start falling out, I don't have to know what I should be taking in order to decide that he gave me the wrong medicine. I can just decide to go to a different doctor. Would that it were that easy to change our president.