May 22nd, 2005, 15:58
editorial | posted May 12, 2005 (May 30, 2005 issue)
Anti-war, Pro-democracy
On April 20 Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean tried to steer his party out of a forceful position on Iraq: "Now that we're there, we're there and we can't get out," he told an audience of 1,000 in Minneapolis. Dean's comment was startling not just because the chairman stepped so far back from the vigorous posture of his presidential campaign but because public opinion is so actively and rapidly moving away from the Bush Administration's Iraq policy. In a recent Gallup poll, Iraq topped the issues Americans would like to discuss with the President, and three-quarters of those for whom Iraq is the top issue want to see an American withdrawal.
The public increasingly recognizes what Washington has been slow to accept: Indefinite US occupation will lead neither to peace in Iraq nor to genuine democracy. Early May saw American military dead exceed 1,600; Iraqis killed by the dozens in escalating bombings; the nascent Iraqi government still squabbling over portfolios three months after the election; the emergence of an official Iraqi death squad made up of ex-Baathists; the cost of the war move past $200 billion with passage of the $82 billion emergency war spending bill; and the Inspector General's scorching report on $100 million in unaccounted-for reconstruction funds. The occupation of Iraq is a military, fiscal and moral crisis. Democrats who rejected Dean's defeatism (among them Tom Hayden and Dennis Kucinich, whose open letters to Dean can be read at www.thenation.com) correctly argue that if their party tries to evade a strong and principled position on ending the occupation it will lose credibility and votes.
The Administration portrays the choice in Iraq as between occupation and insurgent atrocity. But it's a false choice. Practical alternatives already exist. In the Iraqi election the consensus of all leading parties was that there is a need for a timetable for American withdrawal. Only a timetable accompanied by, and spurring, negotiations among all parties will give hope for an end to the instability and violence.
cont:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050530&s=editors
Anti-war, Pro-democracy
On April 20 Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean tried to steer his party out of a forceful position on Iraq: "Now that we're there, we're there and we can't get out," he told an audience of 1,000 in Minneapolis. Dean's comment was startling not just because the chairman stepped so far back from the vigorous posture of his presidential campaign but because public opinion is so actively and rapidly moving away from the Bush Administration's Iraq policy. In a recent Gallup poll, Iraq topped the issues Americans would like to discuss with the President, and three-quarters of those for whom Iraq is the top issue want to see an American withdrawal.
The public increasingly recognizes what Washington has been slow to accept: Indefinite US occupation will lead neither to peace in Iraq nor to genuine democracy. Early May saw American military dead exceed 1,600; Iraqis killed by the dozens in escalating bombings; the nascent Iraqi government still squabbling over portfolios three months after the election; the emergence of an official Iraqi death squad made up of ex-Baathists; the cost of the war move past $200 billion with passage of the $82 billion emergency war spending bill; and the Inspector General's scorching report on $100 million in unaccounted-for reconstruction funds. The occupation of Iraq is a military, fiscal and moral crisis. Democrats who rejected Dean's defeatism (among them Tom Hayden and Dennis Kucinich, whose open letters to Dean can be read at www.thenation.com) correctly argue that if their party tries to evade a strong and principled position on ending the occupation it will lose credibility and votes.
The Administration portrays the choice in Iraq as between occupation and insurgent atrocity. But it's a false choice. Practical alternatives already exist. In the Iraqi election the consensus of all leading parties was that there is a need for a timetable for American withdrawal. Only a timetable accompanied by, and spurring, negotiations among all parties will give hope for an end to the instability and violence.
cont:
http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20050530&s=editors