We won the war a long time ago: Our country was attacked, we responded, and in a long, bloody war, the United States prevailed. The enemy was soundly defeated, and signed a surrender document.
But clearly many people in the defeated territory don't want us there anymore.
So let's withdraw. Remove all U.S. presence in the defeated territory. Let the people of the region govern themselves, at their own expense.
Give them what so many of their elected leaders so clearly want: freedom from the jack-booted oppression of the United States government.
I figure after 145 years, the South can manage all by itself.
So, starting immediately, the United States should remove all vestiges of U.S. government involvement in the defeated territory. I'd say a phased withdrawal should take no more than about six months, a year tops, and would leave the South free to determine how it wants to run its affairs.
All financial ties could be cut almost immediately, while redeployment of physical assets might take a bit longer. Once all the Medicare, Social Security, food stamps and farm subsidy payments are stopped, all federal employees can be withdrawn and federal facilities closed down and sold off. The sale of military bases alone will generate a significant amount of cash. Net saving to the Federal Treasury should be sizable.
Of course, there will be those who will say that such a move is long overdue:
[I]f the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years.
OK, Trent, you're right: You win.