It doesn't appear that the Democratic-controlled
Congress can muster the power or the will to stop President Bush from sending
more troops to Iraq.Some of the
additional 21,500 troops Bush wants to send to Iraq are already arriving.
But even Bush has to know that his bungled
war can't go on forever. Without some measurable and positive results from his
last-ditch "surge" in troops, America should pull back and eventually out of
Iraq.
America will have a new president in less
than two years. Whether it's a Republican or a Democrat, the next president
will not be fool enough to continue Bush's failed policy in Iraq.
Bush had an opportunity to use the
recommendations issued late last year by the Iraq Study Group to craft a plan
to reduce the violence in Iraq, shore up the Iraqi government's ability to
secure order, and gradually remove U.S. troops from harm's way. He chose not
to do that.Instead of leading the
United States out of Iraq, he is leading the nation further in.
Too many of our brave men and women in
uniform are dead and continue to die at an alarming rate -- not so much from
firefights with insurgents, but from roadside bombs.
It's hard to understand how more soldiers
riding around in tanks and being blown up in Iraq will help the American
cause. Sending more troops might have made sense years ago. Sending more
troops now seems like little more than a set-up to an excuse to leave.
Stubborn Bush has put Congress in a box. If
Congress tries to cut funding for the war, Congress will potentially be
shorting our troops on supplies and protection.
That would be wrong.
And yet Congress cannot sit idly by as dozens
of troops lose their lives seemingly every week.
It's time to give Bush an ultimatum. Either
make measurable progress in Iraq -- meaning fewer casualties and markedly less
chaos -- or pull back.
Without some sign that the terrible
insurgency and violence in Iraq is getting better after more troops arrive,
America has no choice but to start pulling back into friendlier areas of the
region. That could include pulling back to larger bases, to the friendlier
Kurdish zone of Iraq and into Kuwait.
A pull-back also could improve diplomatic
efforts to stabilize the region as America's presence in Iraq declines.
Bush appears unabashed and blindly optimistic
about his failed war with precious little change in course. If his "surge"
doesn't show tangible results, the president must finally listen to Congress
and the American people and lead our troops out.
