Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

Democrats do owe the nation more than finger pointing, and if we think there's a winning strategery in staying silent while Bush snickers and whines, we better think again.  When it comes Election Day, a bad plan may still look a lot better to people than no plan.

Fortunately, Democrats can present a plan that's solid, straightforward, and extremely doable.  Does this plan guarantee "victory?"  No, because no plan can do that.  Neither does the plan provide exact dates that might "entice the terrorists to hold out."

The plan was proposed by former National Security Advisor, Zbigniew Brzezinski.  It has four simple steps that will look good on any flyer and can be squeezed into the sixty seconds Democrats usually get on a half-hour television program.

1. We ask the Iraqi government to tell us when to leave.  Many Iraqi officials have already said they want us out, and polls show most of the public agrees.  Request that the Iraqi's put it to a formal vote and come up with a mechanism where they can tell us to leave.
   
2. Once the Iraqis notify us to go, we agree on a mutually acceptable date.  This date should be no more than a few months after the request to leave.
   
3. Iraq agrees to convene a conference of neighboring states, and request a pact for mutual cooperation and protection.
   
4. After leaving Iraq, the US then sponsors a donors' conference in which we solicit funds for the recovery of Iraq. Nations interested in the region are likely to be a lot more generous if they don't think their money is going straight to Dick Cheney's Haliburton retirement fund.
   

That's it.  We ask them, to ask us, to leave.  We leave when we're asked.  We continue to help -- in a non-military fashion -- after we're gone.

No arbitrary timetable.  No troop numbers to remember.

Could this plan go on forever?  Possibly, but with polls already showing that most Iraqis are ready to wave bye-bye to American troops, you probably won't be waiting long until it becomes the hot political issue in Baghdad.  No one could say we were deserting Iraq, because we would be leaving the nation at the request of the democratically elected government.

This plan, with some slight modifications (personally, I'd just drop step 3 -- who are we to tell Iraq how to handle their diplomacy after we leave?) is there.  Democrats should grab it, hold it overhead, and defend it against the inevitable Republican assault.  

Is it a perfect plan?  No.  But we can't let the perfect become the enemy of the good, and compared to the Bush "keep banging your head against the wall until it stops hurting" plan, this one is pretty darn good.