Iraq Civil war offers US choice: pull out or take sides
Warnings by top US generals of a growing threat
of civil war in Iraq are confronting US policymakers with somber questions about
the future of a costly three year old mission to stabilize the country. Civil
war would force the United States to choose between withdrawing its troops or
take sides in what could become a wider regional conflict.
Warnings by top US generals of a growing
threat of civil war in Iraq are confronting US policymakers with somber
questions about the future of a costly three year old mission to stabilize the
country.Civil war would force the
United States to choose between withdrawing its troops or take sides in what
could become a wider regional
conflict.Senator John Warner, the
Republican chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, warned that if Iraq
does descend into civil war the administration may have to seek a new mandate
from the US Congress.“If that
were to come about, I think the American people would ask, ‘Well, which
side are we going to fight on? Or do we fight both? And did we send our troops
there to do that? We thought we sent them there to liberate the Iraqis, which we
have done at a great sacrifice,
2,500-plus”…“Unsettling
though it may sound, the United States could end up with no alternative to
pulling out of a country that had degenerated into chaos,” said Loren
Thompson, director of the Lexington Institute, a Washington group that
specializes in military
analysis.“It seems improbable
but our role in Iraq is to build democracy so if the center doesn’t hold,
there is nothing left to defend,” he
said.A withdrawal of US forces in the
midst of a civil war would be “a huge defeat for American diplomacy, in
fact possibly the greatest defeat ever,” he
said.“However, there is no point
in sticking around to preside over a meltdown. If a country is going to divide
along sectarian lines it would be very dubious strategy to try to prevent a
natural process from unfolding,” he
said.The American
electorate rarely has the sense or courage to challenge political decisions
about war and peace. The VietNam War took years -- and a policy of drafting men
into the military -- before a mass movement grew large enough to force political
hacks to back away from
insanity.Will
voters learn from the immediate past and turn these idiots out of office? Are
there politicians of conscience and courage willing to offer an
alternative?
Posted: Fri - August 4, 2006 at 07:04 AM