| #9 Actually there *is* an "exit strategy", but it is a strange one. Compare it to the "exit strategy" of the US Army leaving Germany at the end of WWII. They didn't but they did. Iraq is no longer the issue for the US military, any more than Germany was at the end of WWII. In Germany, not all, but many of the rifles turned east, to the new enemy. In Iraq, it will be the same situation, except the remaining rifles will be pointed towards Syria, Iran, Central Asia, or Northern Africa, wherever necessary. The new "Iraq Regional Commander" is a regional command (3 star), equal to CENTCOM in stature, but separate from the "Iraq National Commander" (2 star), who will report to him. Divisions will be semi-permanently garrisoned in Iraq with a Status of Forces agreement, much like they are in Germany. So all told, the "exit strategy" is a rotation policy. |
The debate on Iraq is taking a new turn. The Iraqi elections scheduled for Jan. 30, only recently viewed as a culmination, are described as inaugurating a civil war. The timing and the voting arrangements have become controversial. All this is a way of foreshadowing a demand for an exit strategy, by which many critics mean some sort of explicit time limit on the U.S. effort. We reject this counsel. The implications of the term "exit strategy" must be clearly understood; there can be no fudging of consequences. The essential prerequisite for an acceptable exit strategy is a sustainable outcome, not an arbitrary time limit. For the outcome in Iraq will shape the next decade of American foreign policy. A debacle would usher in a series of convulsions in the region as radicals and fundamentalists moved for dominance, with the wind seemingly at their backs. Wherever there are significant Muslim populations, radical elements would be emboldened. As the rest of the world related to this reality, its sense of direction would be impaired by the demonstration of American confusion in Iraq. A precipitate American withdrawal would be almost certain to cause a civil war that would dwarf Yugoslavia's, and it would be compounded as neighbors escalated their current involvement into full-scale intervention.