Quitting IS an Exit Strategy

[mopaul]

http://www.antiwar.com/glantz/?articleid=8191

While George Bush explains his "victory strategy" for Iraq to the American people, his Pentagon chief has already thrown out the most obvious option. There will be no immediate troop withdrawal, cautioned Donald Rumsfeld, because "quitting is not an exit strategy."

But why not? What's wrong with cutting and running? It's time for the U.S. military to leave Iraq.

It's not just the increasing death toll and the still-missing stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. It's not even the tens of billions of dollars in handouts to giant corporations like Bechtel and Halliburton. We need to leave Iraq because we're not wanted there.

Rumsfeld, Bush, and their defenders say the American military needs to stay in Iraq to keep the country from completely exploding. Some talk about the possibility of civil war in Iraq, with Sunni Arabs, Shi'ites, and Kurds in a kind of Wrestlemania free-for-all. Others say they're concerned about the emergence of a Shi'ite Islamic state along the lines of Iran under the ayatollahs. Still others worry that Iraq will become a safe haven for al-Qaeda-type terrorists if America leaves. These concerns may be valid, but we have to ask how a continued U.S. troop presence would prevent the feared outcomes.

---------it's simple: walk away from iraq and leave it to the iraqis.