Don’t Set a Date

With every passing day, the situation in Iraq seems increasingly hopeless. Young people are sent to Iraq by the planeload, and return jaded and disillusioned with the difference our presence is making there. Despite Senator John McCain’s assertions to the contrary, Baghdad outside the Green Zone remains dangerous, the Iraqi government remains weak, and the sectarian violence remains endless. And Americans grow ever more restless.

America’s Iraq policy is drowning in quicksand, yet our president insists that we can still swim out. Just a few more strokes, he says; all that’s required is one more “surge” of effort. But the harder we struggle, it seems, the quicker we sink.

The only palatable solution is an orderly, well-planned draw down of troops that will ultimately culminate with a withdrawal. But President George W. Bush is unwilling to admit failure, and Congress does not have the wherewithal to force him to. Indeed, even if they could, legislating military strategy would be imprudent. We have reached an impasse, and the options do not look good.

On one hand, Congress could cut off funds for the war entirely, which would eventually force the withdrawal of troops, but would undercut soldiers in the field and make for a messy exit. On the other hand, we could all just keep our fingers crossed for a more amenable president to be elected to office next year.

Escalating the domestic foreign policy disagreement, both houses of Congress have recently passed an emergency spending bill to finance the war, attaching timetables for withdrawal of most military forces from Iraq in mid-to-late 2008. President Bush, however, has promised to veto the bill, delivering his usual warnings about undermining our soldiers, breaking promises to the Iraqi people, and the possibility of winning the war.

We understand the Congressional Democrats’ frustration—the only way to make Bush see the light seems to be to force him to do so through legislation. But we oppose politically mandated timetables nonetheless. Let there be no mistake: America must withdraw from Iraq. But planning for such a move must be military in nature, flexible, and amenable to changes depending upon quickly-changing dynamics on the ground. Though the Bush administration has no exit strategy, neither do the Democrats—they simply have a date.

The game of political brinksmanship being played by Congressional leadership and the President is a dangerous one; the lives of American soldiers hang in the balance. Though the pressure of the 2008 elections is looming on every politician’s radar screen, the only way we will extricate ourselves from this mess is if both Congress and Bush stop their game of veiled threats and casting aspersions. Bush should change his policy; the Democrats should cut out the timetable.

Furthermore, the Democrats’ spending bill is chock full of pork spending utterly unrelated to the situation in Iraq—$22 billion worth. Attaching such riders drastically weakens their claim to the moral high ground, and negates their claims to be acting on the behalf of the best interests of all Americans.

Politics seems to have supplanted reason on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue. We hope that both the president and Congress realize what hangs in the balance and commit to a drawdown without a strict timetable.