Progressive Talking Points 2/27/06

Finding a Way Out

February 27, 2006

As we approach the three year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, the government of post-war Iraq still struggles to exceed the level of service and security provided in pre-war Iraq. And as the situation Iraq gets worse, the administration’s lack of a post-war plan becomes clearer. President Bush seems to be unwilling to change course, making him a captive to the realities on the ground. The Center for American Progress has a sensible, alternative approach -- Strategic Redeployment -- that more people outside the administration are beginning to embrace.

• The possibility of civil war has been predicted for months. Before US troops set foot into Iraq, members of Congress worried aloud about the possibility of civil war. Sen. Robert Byrd (D-WV) questioned, "What plans do we have to prevent Iraq from breaking up and descending into civil war?" Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) added, "The end of Saddam Hussein could mean the start of a civil war." The International Crisis Group continues to warn that Iraq is on the verge of breaking up along religious, ethnic and tribal lines. The administration should have anticipated that this was going to occur.
  
  
• Even conservatives are beginning to back away from the administration on Iraq. Conservatives, who were once the strongest supporters of President Bush’s plan to invade Iraq, are now starting to back away from the administration’s "stay the course" strategy. Conservatives like William F. Buckley, Jr., and George Will are questioning the Bush strategy, and Bill Kristol, who was one of the staunchest defenders of the war, now says "we have not had a serious three-year effort to fight a war in Iraq."
  
  
• There is a sensible plan to move forward in Iraq. American Progress national security analysts Lawrence Korb and Brian Katulis are the authors of a widely circulated proposal for a "strategic redeployment" of US forces in Iraq. The plan "calls for the drawdown of 80,000 troops by the end of this year, with some sent to Afghanistan, Africa and Asia and others positioned in Kuwait. Nearly all of the remaining 60,000 US troops would leave by the end of 2007." The deployment of troops to nearby nations "could respond to emergencies in Iraq and help fight terrorism in other countries."