It is said that establishment of a timetable for withdrawal of out troops from Iraq will only embolden the enemy and let them know how much longer they need to hold out. While this may be somewhat true, if not a timetable then what is it going to take?
George often states that when the Iraqi troops are trained so they can take security into their hands, then we will leave. What I would really like to see, if not a timetable is a "good faith estimate" and some concrete goals.
How about something like:
Train and fully equip 275,000 Iraqi soldiers and police - accomplished at a pace of 25,000 per month (or some other realistic number).
Build 9 permanent US military bases complete with blast proof barracks - due for completion by (insert date)
Rebuild oil pipeline X - contracted to Halliburton at a price of and due for completion by (insert date).
Every company I have ever worked for wanted me to establish goals for my team and to have a timeline for completion of these goals or at least an estimate on how long it might take to achieve these goals.
What we have in Iraq is a situation with fuzzy goals:
Is defeating the insurgents the goal - how do we measure that?
Is reconstruction the goal - how do we measure that?
Didn't the Bush Administration pass an educational bill designed to increase accountability through setting standard goals and testing to make sure that the goals are being met. For the rightwing, NCLB was all about accountability and having measurable goals.
Congress needs to ask for a concrete list of task necessary to achieve our goals and (rather than a timetable for withdrawal because we know they won't do that) an estimate of how long it will take to accomplish these tasks.
The media needs to ask for a concrete list of task necessary to achieve our goals and an estimate of how long it will take to accomplish these tasks.
We need to highlight how the Administration of NeoCons has forced accountability on our teachers, and yet shuns any attempt to hold them accountable in how they execute the war in Iraq. How come they get away without the same accountability as a teacher or anyone who works in corporate America?