Recent Iraqi protests about status-of-forces agreement negotiations, along with Senator McCain’s comment getting our troops out of Iraq is "not important," point to fundamental policy choices facing our country.
The U.S. must decide whether we will have a permanent military presence in Iraq. The President and Senator McCain continue to make misplaced analogies between Iraq and other countries where we maintain forces, such as Germany, Korea, or even other Middle East countries like Qatar and Kuwait. Iraq has a long history of having its borders invaded, its government overthrown and its territory occupied by Western powers, all of whom insisted on benign intentions. Currently, we are playing exactly that role, fitting us into a narrative that does not benefit us and which helps our enemies propagandize and recruit. This is not the case with our presence in Germany, in Korea, or other Middle East countries. Because of this history, Iraqis will continue to resent our presence in a way other people do not. The fact that President Bush and Senator McCain do not understand these distinctions should trouble every American.
Given that the best-case scenario in Iraq going forward is a reasonably stable Iraq that can govern and protect itself, we must plan for a reasonable redeployment. The choice in Iraq is not whether we will "win" or "lose." The choice is whether we will ever leave or not. We should, and in order to do so responsibly, we need military planners to craft the complex redeployment strategy. The Commander-in-Chief has refused to ask for such a plan, and we will not have a plan while we have a President who is comfortable staying in Iraq forever.
President Bush’s characterized Iraqi protests against U.S. demands in the status-of-forces negotiations as "noise." Senator McCain insists that the duration of our military presence is "not important." These statements show that they do not understand the most fundamental foreign policy issue faced by our country. It is important to determine when our troops come home, and we should begin a responsible redeployment as soon as possible.