There is an excellent article just out in The New York Review of Books by Peter W. Galbraith called ‘How to Get Out of Iraq’. Given the highly polarized state of the debate about what we should do in Iraq, that title may give the impression that this is a ‘turn tail’ and run sort of prescription. But that’s not at all what the piece is about.
Because of his background researching Saddam’s atrocities and his diplomatic work in the Balkans in the 1990s, Galbraith brings to this issue a unique credibility and authority. And there is much in the piece to bruise the comfortable assumptions of proponents and opponents of the war.
Above all this is an informed and honest portrayal of what’s happening in Iraq; and it is not quite bleak, but pretty close. In his prescription, Galbraith is looking, as Fareed Zakaria was in his own way a couple weeks ago, for a political solution, or perhaps better to say, a political equilibrium in the country that will allow the US military to draw back from a costly, enervating and ultimately self-destructive Gazafication of the parts of Iraq it continues to occupy.
Galbraith proposes what amounts to a de facto partition of the country — something on the model of the old Yugoslavia, with three highly autonomous republics within a loose national government charged with handling diplomacy, monetary policy and certain aspects of national defense. I don’t think I’m willing to go that far yet. But it’s a proposal which is, I guess, worth considering. And the article is well worth your attention.
