Iraq, insoluble
The American Prospect
by Robert Kuttner
07/10/06
Ridiculing the feckless Democrats for their fragmentation on the Iraq War is an easy spectator sport. On the lonely left advocating withdrawal is Senator Russ Feingold, lately joined by Senator John Kerry (did somebody say flip-flop?). On the right Joe Lieberman is defending his Senate seat in dovish Connecticut, while a hawkish Hillary Clinton seems to be incautiously taking her Democratic base for granted and looking beyond her expected 2008 nomination to the general election. And in the mushy center, Democratic leader Harry Reid and 38 Senate colleagues support a vaguely phased withdrawal. But ridiculing these worthies is a little too easy. Because the search for a viable Iraq policy is really hard. President Bush has left the country with a policy problem from hell that may be literally insoluble, for him or anyone else. Put aside partisanship, and consider the options. The first is stay the course. The problem is that the war, at any politically imaginable level of U.S. troop commitment, seems hopelessly unwinnable...
http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=11703
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
by Robert Kuttner
07/10/06
Ridiculing the feckless Democrats for their fragmentation on the Iraq War is an easy spectator sport. On the lonely left advocating withdrawal is Senator Russ Feingold, lately joined by Senator John Kerry (did somebody say flip-flop?). On the right Joe Lieberman is defending his Senate seat in dovish Connecticut, while a hawkish Hillary Clinton seems to be incautiously taking her Democratic base for granted and looking beyond her expected 2008 nomination to the general election. And in the mushy center, Democratic leader Harry Reid and 38 Senate colleagues support a vaguely phased withdrawal. But ridiculing these worthies is a little too easy. Because the search for a viable Iraq policy is really hard. President Bush has left the country with a policy problem from hell that may be literally insoluble, for him or anyone else. Put aside partisanship, and consider the options. The first is stay the course. The problem is that the war, at any politically imaginable level of U.S. troop commitment, seems hopelessly unwinnable...
http://www.prospect.org/web/view-web.ww?id=11703
Informant: Thomas L. Knapp
rudkla - 11. Jul, 15:51
