Should We Stay or Should We Go Now?

Among the worst fucking things about being in Iraq is that there is NO good way out. We barged in as uninvited guests then proceeded to completely screw everything up. But, we can't leave because things will be even worse for the Iraqis when we do. I just love our argument to the Iraqi government:

"Umb...I know that we started this war, but you need to take it over now. We'll still help and stuff, but, y'know, it's yours now. Oh, and by the way, we are soooooo pissed at you for not taking over our war sooner. In fact, if you don't start fighting our war better we are going to punish you by leaving and making it harder for you to fight it. That'll teach you. So, when should we leave?"

The big problem now is that neither Bush or the Democrats have a good response. Bush says, "Hey, it's going fine. If we just keep fighting we'll win." The Dems say, "Well, there's no way we can win this, so we should quit fooling ourselves. We should leave on such-and-such date." What's maddening is that they are both half right. Bush is right in that setting a specific date is stupid. All the warring parties will lay low until that date, then all hell will break lose. The Dems are right in that the war is not winnable for the U.S. We might be able to leave conditions so that the Iraqi government can win it (eventually), but there will not be peace in Iraq while our troops are there.

From a management point-of-view you would think that if we set certain standards (x number of Iraqi combat ready troops, y number of police, etc) we could leave after those are met. However, to this point we don't seem to be making good progress on those kinds of things because of how poorly the war and its aftermath was planned (not sending enough troops to maintain security, firing all of the low-level Baathists from the military/police, etc.).

Given that the House bill on the troop funding doesn't have a hope in hell of passing in the Senate (let along having enough votes in the House to override a veto), the Dems are going to have to negotiate with Bush to get something done. Unless their real motive is to use the war as a political stick for 2008. Nah....they wouldn't do that.