The Wise Course: Withdraw from Iraq
By Paul Findley
Misguided by the arrogance of military power and a dangerous vision of imperial destiny, President George W. Bush and a compliant Congress have led America into a bloody abyss that gets deeper and bloodier with each passing day.
Their dreams of a flower-strewn path of Iraqi liberation have become a nightmare. U.S. forces are mired in a lethal struggle against powerful, resourceful insurgents. It is war, not liberation. Casualties blight many thousands of families on both sides, with no end in sight. Iraqi hostility to the U.S. occupation soars and so does anti-American fury worldwide. Photographs of barbaric U.S. torture and abuse of incarcerated Iraqis will long burn in the memories of many millions. Never before has America been viewed in such wretched ugliness.
President Bush's response to this plight is more troops, preferably from other countries. It will only deepen the misery. We learned in Vietnam that more foreign military firepower will increase insurgency, not quell it. Bush misreads the militancy as the work of remnants of the Saddam regime and newly arrived troublemakers from Al Queda. It fact, it is motivated mainly by broad Iraqi fear that the United States plans to control Iraq far into the future. Here are questions that trouble Iraqis:
— Why has Washington established a super-embassy in Iraq with a staff of 3,000, the largest diplomatic mission in world history? Is it designed to influence future Iraqi governmental activity?
— How long will U.S. troops remain in Iraq? Will U.S. military bases there ever be dismantled?
— When will reconstruction work be turned over to Iraqi contractors and employees?
— How can Iraqis believe Bush's promise of independence and freedom while he helps Israel deny these same rights in neighboring Palestine?
Israel has long manipulated U.S. policy in the Middle East and already advises U.S. forces on how to organize the occupation. Consequently, Iraqis fear Israel will be the real power in fashioning U.S. policy in Iraq during the interim period that starts July l and will remain dominant even after Iraqi citizens directly elect a government. A recent major survey by CNN-USA Today reports that Iraqis fear becoming "another Palestine."
The remedy to this dreadful mess is a clear U.S. decision, announced immediately, to exit Iraq. President Bush must face down Israeli opposition and announce that, within weeks after the inauguration of the new directly-elected government, probably in early January, a full U.S. withdrawal will occur.
His announcement must state that all U.S. military forces and any abnormal U.S. diplomatic bureaucracy will depart, except for those the new Iraqi government may ask to remain. Beyond any such exceptions, all U.S. military bases will be dismantled, all U.S. construction and maintenance contracts will be terminated, and all future U.S. aid to Iraq will handled through the U.S. Agency for International Development.
If Bush acts, his announcement will be applauded except by the Israeli government. In America, all citizens will know that the costly mess in Iraq will soon end. In Iraq, with the U.S. exit assured, insurgency will surely diminish and casualties may even end. Attention will shift to approving a constitution and electing a truly independent Iraqi government.
Worldwide anti-American passion will subside, because the announcement will be read as a significant departure, not just from Iraq, but from the war-making doctrines announced by the Bush administration after the 9/11 catastrophe. It will also signal the end of Bush's dreams of empire in the Middle East and be a significant expression of America's confidence in the ability of the Iraqis to manage their own affairs.
When the U.S. exit is completed, Americans and Iraqis alike will be able to give full attention to mending the awful wounds of an awful war.
Paul Findley, a Republican Member of Congress 1961-83, is the author of three books and hundreds of articles on the Arab-Israeli conflict. He founded the Washington-based Council for the National Interest, and resides in Jacksonville, Illinois.
See also Findley's essay, "Liberating America from Israel"
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