The Washington Post’s David Ignatius poses a reasonable question: “How to extricate ourselves [from Iraq] in a way that minimizes the damage to the United States, its allies and Iraq?” Unfortunately, his proposed solutions aren’t nearly as sensible as his question.
A good start would be for Washington partisans to take deep breaths and lower the volume, so that the process of talking and fighting that must accompany a gradual U.S. withdrawal can work. Some members of Congress argue that pressure for an American troop withdrawal will persuade the Iraqis to put aside their sectarian agendas, but the opposite is more likely to be true.
First, congressional critics of the war can take as many deep breaths as they want, but that won’t have any impact on Iraq policy. Indeed, Ignatius has it backwards — the White House is not going to start withdrawing troops if Congress stops asking him to. Recent history — and common sense — suggests the opposite.
Second, Ignatius also argues that congressional demands are not productive in encouraging Iraqis. Oddly enough, Bush administration officials have come to the opposite conclusion. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said in April that demands in Congress for a timeline to withdraw are good for Iraq because they exert pressure on Iraq’s leaders. “The debate in Congress … has been helpful in demonstrating to the Iraqis that American patience is limited,” Gates told reporters. “The strong feelings expressed in the Congress about the timetable probably has had a positive impact … in terms of communicating to the Iraqis that this is not an open-ended commitment.”
Similarly, Condoleezza Rice used congressional debate as part of a diplomatic strategy earlier this year, intended to urge Iraqi political leaders to accelerate their efforts.
Ignatius’ column is not necessarily an endorsement of the status quo. He acknowledges that we’ll have to withdraw before too much longer, that the conflict is politically unsustainable, and that we’ve been “arming both sides” of an Iraqi civil war.
But Ignatius apparently believes no one should mention any of this, because it undermines the mission. Or something. I don’t think Ignatius has quite worked out the details.
