Honest to God, I have no idea why this hasn't been pushed yet, but it is time for the Iraqis to vote --- not for a government, or a constitution --- but to determine whether they want us to stay or leave, and how long they want us to go about it if they want us to leave.
Personally, I, along with:
72% of the U.S. military;
60% of British voters;
50% of the U.S. public;
AND most importantly,
71% of the Iraqi public
want us to leave Iraq.
Not only that, anywhere from 48% to 70% of Iraqis apparently feel that attacks on US troops are justified, according to a CNN poll taken a few years back (for the former number) and a British Ministry of Defense "secret poll" for the latter number taken a year ago. If that isn't an indicator of whether we are wanted there or not, I don't know what is.
In light of the fact that we have bestowed democracy upon the Iraqis, it is time to acquaint them with the referendum process. Let's ask THEM in an actual vote, and not what undoubtedly is flawed polling (though which way we don't know), whether they want us to leave! It's their country, let's let them decide. We can give them three options:
- US and allied troops must leave as soon as logistically possible;
- US and allied troops must leave within one year; and
- When the US and allied troops leave should be up to the discretion of the US government.
I suggest that Democrats start pushing for this solution as soon as possible. I ran this by some viciously wingnut folks on a fairly diverse board I frequent, and the response was amazingly positive. They absolutely support the right of the Iraqis to determine their own destiny, though one of them did imply that all of the above polls are simply liberal media bias and "will us liberals admit this if the Iraqis vote to have us stay?"
What would an Iraqi vote do? It would save us face! We can say that we are leaving because we believe in letting the Iraqi system work, and Iraqis want to stand up for themselves. And if Democrats push for the idea and it meets resistance from Bush, then we can begin calling him on all his BS with regard to supporting democracy in Iraq.
Come on Democrats, let's start moving the ball on this. Chop chop!