You will hear from John McCain, Maureen Dowd, and me on the situation in Iraq. John McCain is mistaken that adding more troops to Iraq will solve the situation. At least McCain understands there is a dilemma. Maureen Down doesn't know what to do and says nobody else does either. Wrong! I know what we can do, what we must do, and what is the the only strategy that will succeed in Iraq.
The solution to Iraq is below the fold.
White House Hopefuls Vary on Iraq Policy
By Liz Sidoti
The Associated Press
Wednesday 22 November 2006
Washington - As violence grips Iraq, some White House hopefuls want US troops to start coming home now, or at least soon. Others say the United States must win at all costs. One has called for Iraq to be carved up along ethnic lines. And then there's Sen. John McCain.
"I believe victory is still attainable," the Arizona Republican says. "But without additional combat forces we will not win this war."
In carefully scripted language, McCain then adds: "If the country does not have the will to do what it takes to win in Iraq - send in more forces - then US troops should not be made to serve more tours of duty."
"As troubling as it is, I can ask a young Marine to go back to Iraq," he said last week. "What I cannot do is ask him to return to Iraq, to risk life and limb, so that we might delay our defeat for a few months or a year. That is more to ask than patriotism requires."
"It would be immoral, and I could not do it," the former Vietnam prisoner of war added.
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Lost in the Desert
By Maureen Dowd
The New York Times
Wednesday 22 November 2006
Iraq now evokes that old Jimmy Durante song that goes, "Did you ever have the feeling that you wanted to go and still have the feeling that you wanted to stay?"
It's hard to remember when America has been so stuck. We can't win and we can't leave.
The good news is that the election finished what Katrina started. It dismantled the president's fake reality about Iraq, causing opinions to come gushing forth from all quarters about where to go from here.
The bad news is that no one, and I mean no one, really knows where to go from here. ...
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Wrong, Ms. Dowd. The way to go from here is for the United States to renounce all intentions of permanently occupying bases in Iraq, admit it was a mistake to invade Iraq, completely withdraw its troops from Iraq within 4 to 6 months, and help establish an international fund to reconstruct Iraq. The U.S. should be the biggest contributor to that fund. Release of any monies from that fund can be conditioned on cessation of violence in Iraq (as determined by an independent international body). That is what the United State can do, must do, and is the only strategy that will succeed in Iraq.