The Record reminds us today that there is only one solution in Iraq, and it’s not the one the president is pushing.
In focused its attention on competing U.S. Senate resolutions:
The best resolution in the Senate, setting a July 2007 deadline for almost total troop withdrawal, was defeated yesterday, 86-13.
Its sponsor, John Kerry, D-Mass., is said to be mulling another run for the presidency, and he was criticized the last time around for waffling on the war. But politics aside, his call for a reasonable deadline for troop withdrawal makes sense.
As Mr. Kerry said, Iraqis have responded well to other deadlines the United States has set for elections and the writing of their constitution.
The war, as the paper rightly says, “is not a war that the United States is going to ‘win.’ “
Even if the insurgents were crushed, which obviously cannot be done at current troop levels, much of the violence in Iraq is sectarian, compounded by a growing criminal element operating on its own.
Even Mr. Bush says U.S. troops will leave once the Iraqis themselves can stabilize their country. The question becomes are we enabling them by allowing them to depend on us rather than take charge, and how much is the U.S. troop presence contributing to the chaos?
This newspaper, which has consistently opposed the Iraq invasion, has also recognized the problems and dangers that an abrupt pullout would present. But blindly “staying the course,” hoping for the best and continually insisting that success is just around the corner, has cost the nation dearly in terms of lives, funding, credibility and the ability to address other crises, both foreign and domestic.
So, the course seems clear to me. How ’bout the rest of you.
The South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
Hank Kalet 