The troops must be redeployed. Not next year, not during the next presidency, NOW. Why? Won't that "embolden the terrorists"? No.
First, our presence in Iraq emboldens the terrorists. It also emboldens Israel to bombard Lebanon, further emboldening the Arab world against the United States and its support of Israel. The conflicts in the Middle East are tightly knitted together, and the first step in ending the madness that Bush has furthered is to take the troops out of Iraq.
But that is not the last step. We have a problem rising in Afghanistan. Afghanistan presents a better opportunity for a flourishing democracy, similar to Lebanon (I'll get to Lebanon in a moment). Afghanistan was and is a war worth fighting for. Al Qaeda breeds in Afghanistan, and their government and military is too weak to effectively prevent Al Qaeda from hiding and regrouping. The Taliban are also regrouping, and seizing portions of the country. This is a massive failure on the part of our Administration to "fight the terrorists where they are". The solution is redeploy our Iraqi troops to Afghanistan. While they started this war, we can and must finish it before bringing all of our troops home. We need to establish strong control in the rural and mountainous regions of the Afghanistan, and we need to recruit more troops to train for this mission to replenish our tired soldiers.
Redeploying our troops from Iraq into Afghanistan will serve to strengthen our mission of defeating the terrorists, and Democrats must face the fact that we must fight this battle. We cannot simply bring of all of our troops home and call it a day, because that will truly be irresponsible. Now you must be wondering, 'what about Iraq? Won't they fall into civil war and more chaos?'
While we redefine our scope of warfare and focus on winning the battle in Afghanistan, we must dedicate resources, real resources, to rebuilding Iraq. We need to support Iraq as we support Israel. That is, we need first guarantee rebuilding funds and end our wasteful, crony-istic self-serving over-budget contracts. At the same time, we need to seek support from the United Nations or NATO and in particular, Arab nations, to send in a replacement force to help secure Iraq against the insurgents. With a true multi-national force, and competitively-bidded rebuilding contracts open to world firms, we can and must regain the trust and camaraderie that we enjoyed after the tragic events of 9/11 while at the same time removing the crutches of the insurgency in Iraq. (NOTE: That is probably the only tie that can be made between 9/11 and Iraq).
Similarly, and possibly at the same time, we need to end the bloodshed in Lebanon and Israel. Lebanon is a potential democracy that we are single-handedly allowing to falter by not engaging Israel more forcefully. Yes, Israel has a right to defend itself from Hezbollah, but the nation of Lebanon should not be destroyed to remove a terrorist group. The U.S. must pressure Israel to put a Mid-East peace plan in fast-forward. What this means is an immediate cease-fire on both sides of the border, with Lebanese and a multi-national peace-keeping force in Lebanon with the power to disarm Hezbollah. At the same time, Israel must establish a Palestinian State, complete with a multi-national peacekeeping force to assist in a peaceful transition to full, honorable Statehood. The rebuilding of Lebanon and strong infrastructure in Palestine must be supported by the United States with the same gusto that we support Israel. This last piece is vitally important to attracting the support of the world community to supply troops and additional funding, as well as helping to build support in the Arab world. As much of the Arab world is flush with cash, a lot of this funding can and should come from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, the U.A.E., etc.
The actions listed above are not easy, and are not cheap. But in this world, our only world, they are urgently needed. To pay for our portion of the burden, we need to ask our countrymen to accept a tax increase. There are no ifs, ands or buts about it. We cannot continue mortgaging our future and we must solve this problem if we are to have a future. These actions taken together, including sacrifice on the part of Americans, will show the world, and Muslims in particular, that we are compassionate and dedicated to world peace. These actions will reduce support among insurgents in Iraq, Lebanon and Afghanistan and they will help re-build America's dwindling support among world powers. Steps that follow the above include engaging Iran and Syria. But we must move forward quickly so that we can first belittle their influence in the Arab world. The U.S. cannot and should not bear this burden alone - nations from all walks must serve this purpose, but the U.S. only is in the position to begin it.
I call on all Americans, and Democrats in particular, to embrace this bold plan for the Middle East. While my goals are not politically motivated, we must change the political landscape in America to embark in a new direction that will guarantee our position in the world for generations to come. This is our moment, we must seize it.