Bring them home (LA Times OpEd)

[bemildred]

LAT throws in the towel.

WHATEVER THE future holds, the United States has not "lost" and cannot "lose" Iraq. It was never ours in the first place. And however history will judge the war, some key U.S. goals have been accomplished: Saddam Hussein has been ousted, tried and executed; Iraqis have held three elections, adopted a constitution and established a rudimentary democracy.

But what now? After four years of war, more than $350 billion spent and 3,363 U.S. soldiers killed and 24,310 wounded, it seems increasingly obvious that an Iraqi political settlement cannot be achieved in the shadow of an indefinite foreign occupation. The U.S. military presence — opposed by more than three-quarters of Iraqis — inflames terrorism and delays what should be the primary and most pressing goal: meaningful reconciliation among the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds.

This newspaper reluctantly endorsed the U.S. troop surge as the last, best hope for stabilizing conditions so that the elected Iraqi government could assume full responsibility for its affairs. But we also warned that the troops should not be used to referee a civil war. That, regrettably, is what has happened.

The mire deepens against a backdrop of domestic U.S. politics in which support for the ill-defined mission wanes by the week. Better to begin planning a careful, strategic withdrawal from Iraq now, based on the strategies laid out by the Iraq Study Group, than allow for the 2008 campaign season to create a precipitous pullout.

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-iraq6may06,0,3257310.story?coll=la-opinion-leftrail

[FightingIrish]

1. Sadly this administration is again failing to plan

Just as they failed to plan for the mess we are in now, they want the tough issues of withdrawal to be election issues. If they lose in 2008 the withdrawal will be certain and the timetable accelerated. They have no plan for an Iraqi nation in which American occupiers are not part of the equation. They are buying time with our precious young men and women.

[Monkeyman]

2. K&R

[Rageneau]

3. Has the LAT finally noticed all the blood on its hands?

Doesn't matter. Even if they realize, accept and apologize for all their previous suck-ups to the Military-Industrial Complex vis-a-vis Iraq, they are sure to suck-up to the Military-Industrial Complex as soon as the subject is something else.

The one certain thing is that the Mainstream Media will always endorse and repeat the most right-wing point of view -- until that point of view is finally proven untenable and stupid. Whereupon the MSM will overlook its own complicity and start seek scapegoats.