Cut and Run? You bet.

Crossposted from Bridget in the Sixth.

I was at the bookstore today and I spotted this headline in Foreign Policy Magazine.
I was pleased to see the article posted in it's entirety on the website.
More on the flip...

This part is of particular interest to me, given a recent conversation that I had with a certain 6th district Congressional candidate. Regarding the administration's flawed arguments regarding withdrawal from Iraq:

Before U.S. forces stand down, Iraqi security forces must stand  up.
The problem in Iraq is not military competency; it is political consolidation. Iraq has a large officer corps with plenty of combat experience from the Iran-Iraq war. Moktada al-Sadr's Shiite militia fights well today without U.S. advisors, as do Kurdish pesh merga units. The problem is loyalty. To whom can officers and troops afford to give their loyalty? The political camps in Iraq are still shifting. So every Iraqi soldier and officer today risks choosing the wrong side. As a result, most choose to retain as much latitude as possible to switch allegiances. All the U.S. military trainers in the world cannot remove that reality. But political consolidation will. It should by now be clear that political power can only be established via Iraqi guns and civil war, not through elections or U.S. colonialism by ventriloquism.

Are ya' listening Tammy? The Vietnamization of Iraq isn't a good plan.