Watch Bush's damage control on May 23 when the Iraq government dissolves for failure to form a cabinet. Sen. John Warner, R-Va. , (Chairperson of the Senate Armed Services Committee)admits, "We could lose it all."
A May 22 deadline looms with little prospect for the fragile Iraq government to form a cabinet. Without agreement by May 22, the parliament will dissolve and new elections will follow.
Since Iraqi parliamentary elections in December, the parliament has failed to name a cabinet. Factions in the parliament cannot agree on crucial jobs heading the defense and interior ministries. These are critical positions because Sunnis believe the attacks on Sunni communities by "death squads" wearing police and military uniforms were carried out by rival Shiites using Iraq's security forces.
"We could lose it all," admitted Sen. John Warner, R-Va. , (Chairperson of the Senate Armed Services Committee) to 150 foreign policy experts at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington. Not surprisingly, Iraq is entering a critical phase in its political development that will break Bush's "mission" to install democracy in the Middle East.
The Republican Administration sent us to war without either defining what victory in Iraq will be, or preparing an exit strategy. The invasion of Iraq opened a Pandora's box of volatile ethnic and sectarian tensions that make the world more dangerous with each passing day. When will Bush and his Congressional Rubber Stamps acknowledge the Iraq war is:
1) needlessly killing America's sons and daughters,
2) driving up our gasoline prices by eliminating Iraq's crude production which before war accounted for 10% of the world's crude production,
3) creating the new training ground for anti-American terrorists, and
4) destabilizing the entire region?
I have a plan for withdrawal from Iraq, with honor, in three months. It is based on the lessons learned during Civil War in Lebanon during the late 80's. Five factions were warring. The U.N. peacekeepers retreated with their tails between their legs. Now we have peace that has lasted seventeen years and Beirut is flourishing. The Arab League negotiated and enforced peace. America should request the assistance of the Arab League in negotiating a peace between the warring Shiia and Sunni factions. To enable the peace process, America should pull back to points of strategic significance such as Kuwait, Jordan, and UAE. From there, immediate troop withdrawals can begin. By implementing this approach, we facilitate an Arab solution to the Arab problems in Iraq, take our sons and daughters out of harm's way now, and facilitate peace. Do what is right, let the consequences follow.