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A failed case for keeping our troops in Iraq
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Candidate
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| Contributor | RP |
| Last Edited | RP Sep 11, 2007 09:27pm |
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| Category | Op-Ed by Candidate |
| News Date | Wednesday, September 12, 2007 03:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | The trim, dignified general with many a desert battle under his belt faced a brigade of skeptics weighing his every word. The world keenly watched on live TV as he laid out the Bush administration's case for action in Iraq. Charts and maps and photos supported his recitation of the facts.
They turned out to be wrong, and it became clear that then-Secretary of State Colin Powell had been sent to the United Nations in February 2003 with selective evidence to justify going to war.
I was starkly reminded of that scene as Gen. David Petraeus, the U.S. commander in Iraq, came before the House Foreign Affairs and Armed Services committees Monday. Was this his Colin Powell Moment? If so, it would be a shame in every sense of the word.
The escalation in our military presence in Iraq may have produced some tactical successes. But strategically, the escalation has failed.
It was intended to buy time for Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the other Iraqi political leaders to find ways to move toward the one thing that may end this terrible civil conflict - a political settlement. As best we can see, that time has been utterly squandered. Prime Minister Maliki has not shown the slightest inclination to move in the direction of compromise. Instead of working to build national institutions - a truly Iraqi army, a competent bureaucracy, a non-sectarian police force - Maliki has moved in the opposite direction. |
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