We've been over this and over this. The war is fubar. In hindsight, most of America realizes it never should have been waged. Most of us here knew that ahead of time.
So we've done a lot of bickering about how to politicize this. Most of the breakdowns in the argument have come over policy differences. What seems best politically (from a progressive viewpoint) may or may not be the smartest thing in terms of policy. At the very least, there is room for legitimate, honorable disagreement on this point.
I'm referring, of course, to withdrawing. We start calling for withdrawal, for various reasons, and then - here's the key - we follow up that call by offering a withdrawal plan.
Here's a question. Why?
Pros:
- Since we're the one calling for withdrawal, of course we should be the one offering a withdrawal plan.
For some reason, this judgment just seems hardcoded in most of our psyches. It just seems right, you know? If you have a suggestion, tell me how? "And how do you suggest doing so?" comes the response from the GOP when we say we need to withdraw.
Cons:
- Coming up with a withdrawal plan is really hard
- The Iraq situation is really complicated
- If we withdraw too soon, then things might get worse over there
- If we do it anyway, it opens us up to criticism for "making it worse".
So, why the hell should all that be on our heads? The situation wasn't our fault. The most any of our Democrats ever did was vote for authorization, trusting that our new president had a level of competence that a president really should have. None of the Democrats made any of the crappy decisions that Bush and Rummy did.
Those Cons should be on Bush's head.
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Here's what I'm suggesting:
EVERYONE, STOP CALLING FOR DEMOCRATS TO COME UP WITH WITHDRAWAL PLANS!!!!!
Just STOP it! Any withdrawal plan is going to be flawed and awful in some regard. It's a no-win situation for us.
Instead, we should all unite in demanding that BUSH come up with a withdrawal plan. Because the war is awful, it should end, it's not doing any good, our soldiers are dying, and all the other reasons that we are against this war.
Beat the drum. Demand that BUSH come up with a withdrawal plan. Then if he tries, scream bloody murder about all its flaws, and blame him further for getting us into this mess.
Demand your Democratic leaders to call for a withdrawal plan. Not to offer one up of their own. They don't have to abdicate their old vote. They just have to say that it's a mess, Bush is incompetent, we need to get out of there, and that it's up to BUSH to figure out how, and now. They just have to call for a withdrawal plan, authored by Bush.