Apparently, Bush's speech equating Iraq and Vietnam has found a convert. Krauthammer seems convinced that Iraq really is like Vietnam, arguing that old maxim "in order to save a village, it was necessary to destroy it."
In order to save Iraqi government (and the myth that the precious surge really did work), we have to start over:
Maliki is not just weak but unreliable. Time is short. We should have long ago -- say, when national security adviser Stephen Hadley wrote his leaked memo last November about Maliki's failure -- begun working to have this dysfunctional government replaced....
New elections are not a panacea. They will take long to organize -- which is why we should have been working toward this months ago. But the reconciliation from below that is actually happening in the provinces could -- and logically should -- be making national reconciliation possible in Baghdad. We can't sit around forever waiting for Maliki.
A coup! That's what the Iraqis need, that will certainly help the country understand the benefits of Jeffersonian democracy that we're bringing to them.
And it's not just the government that needs to be destroyed to be saved. It turns out we also need to destroy the Iraqi police force in order to save it. From another draft report on Iraq that Kevin writes about:
The commission, headed by Gen. James L. Jones, the former top United States commander in Europe, concludes that the rampant sectarianism that has existed since the formation of the police force requires that its current units "be scrapped" and reshaped into a smaller, more elite organization, according to one senior official familiar with the findings. The recommendation is that "we should start over," the official said.
As Kevin says:
In other words, except for the fact that Iraq has a disfunctional government, a disfunctional police force, and a barely functional army, things are going great. I can't wait to see how Crocker and Petraeus spin this into an argument for staying another four years.
Boy, really makes you want to throw another $200 billion down the surge tube, doesn't it Dick Durbin?
It's clear that it's long past time for this Congress to tell the Bush administration that the gig is up. And kos has given them exactly what to say.
"The next funding bill will fund the troops as long as they are in Iraq. And we'll also pass legislation making sure that they're not there any longer than it will take for an orderly withdrawal."
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