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âUS should pull out of Iraq nowâ
WASHINGTON - The United States should cut its losses, pull out of Iraq promptly and never again use its military might to build a nation according to its own values, former CIA chief John Deutch wrote on Friday in The New York Times.
US military presence in Iraq is harming US interests in the Arab world, detracts attention from other âimportant security challenges ... North Korea, Iran and international terrorism,â and weakens the US military, said Deutch, who before heading the Central Intelligence Agency (1995-1996) was deputy defense secretary (1994-1995).
âThose who argue that we should âstay the courseâ because an early withdrawal ... would hurt Americaâs global credibility must consider the possibility that we will fail in our objectives in Iraq and suffer an even worse loss of credibility down the road,â he added.
| Okay, we considered it. But we're not going to fail. Thanks, and go back to your retirement. |
âI do not believe that we are making progress on any of our key objectives in Iraq,â he said, adding that even when the Iraqi government appears to be functioning, âthe underlying destabilizing effect of the insurgency is undiminished.â
| How the hell would you know? |
Rather than spend years, money and lives in Iraq to achieve âminimum conditions for withdrawalâ -- security and a representative self-government -- Deutch argued that a quick withdrawal now would avoid a lot of grief to come. âOur best strategy now is a prompt withdrawal plan consisting of clearly defined political, military and economic elements,â including urging Iraq and its neighbors to recognize that it would be in everyoneâs interest to allow Iraq to âevolve peacefully and without external intervention.â
| And when the jihadis, the Ba'athists, the Syrians, Soodis and Iranians decide to intervene and not be very peaceful about it, what then? We'll be 4,000 miles away. |
Deutch argued in favor of propagating democratic reforms through example and economic incentives rather than by force. âIt is one matter to adopt a foreign policy that encourages democratic values; it is quite another to believe it just or practical to achieve such results on the ground with military forces,â Deutch, who currently is a chemistry professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
| Thank goodness you're not teaching political science. Recall Germany or Japan, 1945 -- we were quite successful in imposing democratic values by military force. |
While the United States should not shirk from sending its military to save lives, as it should have done during the Rwandan genocide 10 years ago, he said, âwe should not be lured into intervention that has as its driving purpose the replacement of despotic regimes with systems of government more like our own.
| Remind us: weren't you in power then? CIA chief, deputy DoD -- didn't you have the opportunity to urge an intervention in Rwanda? Why didn't you? Why didn't you resign in protest? But we already know why ... |
Posted by: Steve White 2005-07-16 |
