The Deadline

If the Democrats have their way, the bulk of American troops will be out of Iraq within the year. I'm a Democrat and I firmly believe that not only was the War in Iraq morally wrong, it was a crime. Though I never had any doubts that Iraq posed little threat to us, even as a teenager in High School when the war first began, many Americans did and that's because the President and his administration intentionally mislead them and a ineffective congress did little to stop him. What George W. Bush has done is grounds for impeachment but with his term winding down the chances of that ever happening are extremely unlikely.

The Democrats are in control now and they want a way out of this war. Interestingly all the deadlines are before the November 2008 election, where a new President, probably Democrat, will be elected. Despite my hatred for the war I feel my party is doing too little too late and doesn't seem to be looking for any real solutions. If American troops leave, Iraq's Government will fall and anarchy will reign. Time and time again I've heard our leaders say that we were tired of helping the Iraqis needed to fix their own mess and to stand up to the plate and take responsibility. This completely ignores the fact that we created that mess. Saddam Hussein was an evil man but it was the bungled invasion of Iraq to overthrow his government that spawned the Civil War that now rages in there. It's not just the Iraqis mess to clean up, it's ours.

I still believe that the best solution is a divided Iraq. The State of Iraq hasn't always existed it was evented by Great Britain after the fall of the Ottoman Empire following World War I. They stupidly carved out a nation that cut through the territory of several different ethnic groups (ie. Kurdistan in the North). Iraq was created and just as easily as it was created it can be destroyed. The best solution I've heard is to divide the country into three spheres (Kurds, Shiites, Sunnis) either as independent states or in some lose Federation similar to the United Arab Emirates. This break is taking place anyway. This might not immediately end the war but it'll be a good start. It would also curb the influence of Iran to only the Shiite dominated sphere.

I must disagree with the Democratic Leadership on this one. Leaving is not a solution. It seems that instead of thinking of ways to bring peace to Iraq Democrats and Republicans can only think in terms of adding or reducing troop levels. We could have 1 million troops in Iraq and it still might not be enough (The city of Baghdad has 5 million people alone). It's not about military strength anymore that ended with the fall of the Republican Guard. We can keep cutting the weed but until we pull out the roots it's going to keep growing. Hopefully, we'll realize that before it's too late...if it's not too late.