Ezra has some very interesting and intuitive thoughts about a potential U.S. withdrawal from Iraq. Most notably,
Now, I'm no pollster, no strategist, and no campaign consultant but, come to think of it, I've not lost many elections, either, so this is my opinion, and take it for what it's worth. Withdrawal, despite the frame it's currently in, doesn't have to be presented as recognition of a quagmire or ass-kicking. It doesn't have to be a loss. The case can be made that Bush's mistake, aside from his fatal mismanagement, was massive overreach. He wanted to do much more than America should. Our "job", our aim, was to depose a tyrant, halt his (fictitious) weapons programs, free the Iraqi people, get them back on their feet, and get the fuck out.
We did depose the tyrant, we did ensure he had no weapons programs, we did "free" the Iraqi people, we helped them hold elections, helped them form a government, and soon, hopefully, they'll have a constitution. Once their army is largely trained, that's the end of America's job. What's happening, now, is the expected result of us continuing a project that is already completed. Eventually, freedom means independence. It means taking responsibility for your own future and working things out. Our job in Iraq is complete. Hovering over it like a worried parent accompanying their kid to college is just making the country lash out at us.
With this in mind, it seems to me that the Bush Administration should have kept this kind of thinking in mind when creating their public relations campaign. I have written earlier about the difficulty in completely breaking an insurgency in its home country. This should have never been the goal for the war. Although the current difficulties probably never entered the minds of those in charge of post-war planning, a total end to the insurgency should not be the only way to declare victory. For some reason, even though this has continuously been deemed a different type of ware, the same standards for victory still stand; this is a mistake.
If the Bush Administration had been smart they would have started talking about the recent democratic government advances, the recent constitution problems not withstanding, as evidence that our responsibilities are nearing the end. These kinds of advancements should be the real goals of our occupation, not the defeat of insurgents. Instead the Administration has related these democratic victories back to the defeat of the insurgency-saying time and time again that the insurgency will eventually lose out to the political process. Each time they have been wrong.
Although the most opportune time may have passed, the Democrats can shift their message to reflect Ezra’s. By creating benchmarks other then defeat of the insurgency to measure victory, Democrats can support withdrawal without being anti-war. This may be a difficult message to put out, but it can’t be any worse then the current one, or lack thereof. The goal of a war like this should not be the ultimate defeat of the insurgency-such a goal could take many more years-but the formation of a government that can defeat the insurgency on its own.
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