Considerations

I do not agree 100% with the article below but there are some very valid points and these points are not being considered by the White Flag Republicans (RINOS) or the Socialist Leftinistra that have ulterior motives. I have placed emphasis in blue.

Beware Expedience in Iraq

06:38 AM CDT on Tuesday, July 10, 2007

Momentum is building on Capitol Hill for a showdown with President Bush on an Iraq troop withdrawal, now that 18 benchmarks for progress will not be met by a mid-September deadline. Before the momentum becomes unstoppable, we'd like to ask all sides to consider the cliff up ahead.

The growing chorus of dissent in Congress makes clear that fear – specifically the fear of a voter backlash in 2008 – is driving legislators to choose the most expedient route over one that accounts for America's, as well as Iraq's, best long-term interests.

Nobody, except our enemies, is happy with the 3,600-plus U.S. death toll. Nobody can tolerate Iraqi leaders' ongoing failure to get their house in order. But just because key Republicans, including Sens. Pete Domenici and Richard Lugar, are ending support for the administration's troop-surge strategy does not mean that the Democratic plan for a pullout is the best or only solution.

We think it's a bad idea that risks repeating the same mistakes that the Bush administration made when it launched the Iraq war.

The administration was seriously misguided to think that it could rush troops in, oust a dictator and then step aside as democracy flourished and all of Iraq's problems disappeared. Because the administration had no realistic postwar plan, it created the security vacuum that American troops have had to fill over the past four years.

It is equally foolish today for Congress to think all of our problems in Iraq will be solved simply by forcing the president to agree to a pullout. Congress offers no realistic plan to fill the new security vacuum that a U.S. withdrawal would undoubtedly create.

The likely outcome is an unacceptable mix of civil war, chaos, massive bloodshed and potentially direct military confrontation involving Iran, Syria, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. Do our best thinkers on Capitol Hill really believe that's preferable to the status quo?

President Bush has demonstrated the danger of launching a war based on half-baked plans. Troop-withdrawal advocates have yet to convince us their strategy won't make the mess worse.