I don't know why I feel the need to add my voice to those calling for troop withdrawal from Iraq. Maybe I'm a little concerned about how insistent the call is becoming. Maybe I'm a little afraid that if we do it to impetuously, as we did going in, we may cause ourselves even more problems than we have now.
One thing is certain, and that is, as opposed to when we went in, we need to seriously think through the consequences of our actions and try to understand our alternatives within a truly holistic view of our grand global strategy.
When you think in terms of a grand strategy, you really aren't trying to understand things in tactical terms. What your basically trying to come up with are some consistent general principles to work off of in your foreign policy.
I would like to suggest that, before we withdraw from Iraq, the only way to do so without seriously compromising our national security would be by adopting two principles as guiding strategies. By adopting them, I don't mean just pay lip-service to them as we conduct our true foreign policy principles. I mean radically changing our course as a country.
- A true commitment to international law.
- A commitment to energy self-sufficence.
Without at least shifting to a foreign policy that reflects those two imparatives, I believe that withdrawing Iraq would be disasterous for us.