The Meat of the Matter

Progressive Plans on Iraq

We DO need a plan to get out of Iraq. The majority of American people want us out of Iraq. The majority of Iraqi people want us out of Iraq. Yet, neither of our "representative" governments are in favor of getting us out of Iraq any time soon. Why is that? Because our current adminstration doesn't have a plan. Reflexively, I've oft heard it said that "the left has no plan" regarding how to handle the situation in Iraq. News soundbytes and bloggers who purport themselves to be in the know have parrotted the Right-Wing theory that The Left just wants to "cut and run". But how intelligent is this argument? It assumes that the Democrats have no exit plan, and that President Bush does. In fact, President Bush hasn't made it all that clear of what our objectives are. All I've heard is "When Iraq Stands up, We'll Stand Down." Well that's nifty, but what does it mean? What is the timetable? What are the steps we are taking to get them to stand up? What are the incentives? Answer: "They don't know." And the coup de grace: the Left has offered several plans. Earlier this year, one of them got a fairly united backing from the Democratic party. News of this can be found here and it is called "Strategic Redeployment" and seems to be a well-reasoned plan that takes many factors into consideration. Another--possibly even better--idea is to divide Iraq into three regions that would more accurately reflect the three distinct national cultures that Iraq has. Give each region the ability to govern itself according to its culture, and give the central government the reigns on the few areas of common interest. This plan makes a whole hell of a lot of sense. And it comes to us from Joe Biden ... a Democrat. The news media and the Bush-Koolaid-Drinkers have puppeted out the "cut and run" term so many times, that it has led many gullible Americans to believe that the Left has no plan. The fact is, we do. Bush is the one who has no plan. So when it comes to the word "plan" I can come to only one conclusion Inigo Montoya did: "I don't think that word means what you think it means."