Kissing Your Cousin

Talk about a mixed message:

This morning, the WSJ reported that Defense Secretary Robert Gates is “seeking to build bipartisan political support for a long-term U.S. presence in Iraq by moving toward withdrawing significant numbers of troops from Iraq by the end of President Bush’s term.” As TPM’s Spencer Ackerman notes, “it’s basically a trade-off: cut the surge short in order to stay in Iraq indefinitely.

We are a long long way from solving the "Iraq problem". Removing troops? Definitely a good thing. Leaving a permanent presence? Crazy. But how many politicians, even politicians advocating a change in policy, are actually supporting a total withdrawal? The nonsense CW that we need a presence to prevent a meltdown is ridiculous. Iraq is in meltdown now. Iraq will stay in meltdown until Iraqis take on the task of solving their disputes. As long as their is a foreign presence, particularly a western presence, those disputes will not be solved.

To have any American soldiers in Iraq is to continue the war. Anyone thinking otherwise is just deluding themselves.