[ This article, with time references changed, was first written
in early spring 2004, and was submitted to the Washington Post for
publication; it was not accepted.  It was submitted several times after
that, after every 200 new US deaths, and with the appropriate time
references changed.  I keep hoping that someone with media clout will
at least pick up on the idea.  :-(  ] 

Get out. Get out! get out the day before yesterday if possible; but certainly on or before e.g. Tax Day, 2005.

But -- some will ask -- isn't now a terrible time to withdraw? Answer: indeed yes. It is a terrible time to withdraw. Our leaders will have to eat a lot of their words. Iraq may become what it never was before, a haven for Al Qaeda terrorists. Our withdrawal will be seen by some as a defeat for the United States. And the great OIL revenues looked upon so hungrily by some will not accrue to the coffers of US oil companies, or at any rate not so easily.

But whether now is a terrible time to withdraw is not the question. The question rather is: can anyone think of a scenario where there would be a better time? Does anyone think that the Iraqis who oppose us will in due course become tractable? Shall we nuke Fallujah? Shall we nuke Baghdad? Shall we draft 100,000 young Americans, quickly train them in Arabic, and ship them over?

Some have a feeling that eventually the US presence, perhaps manifested "more responsibly", will eventually wear down the Iraqi insurgents and peace will waft in. Isn't it much more likely that as the Kurds and the Shiites in the South are trained for the new Iraqi security forces (trained by Americans of course) and used to quell Sunni intransigence that ever new sectarian and tribal hatreds will be generated?

It will again be argued: "How can we have the violence which will very likely break out upon US withdrawal on our conscience?" There are two answers. The first is: we USAns are used to trashing other nations and their systems. Think Mossadegh in the 50s, and the reimposition of the Shah; think of our deposing Arbenz in Guatemala, thus setting off slaughter which continues to this day; think of our complicity in the Pinochet takeover in Chile, from which Chile is now slowly recovering. There are other examples.

And the second answer is, again: the longer we stay there the worse the problem grows.

Have I mentioned that we can do better things with the $100 billion a year that it takes to keep our troops in Iraq? Have I mentioned the butcher bill, the monthly 100 or so US lives lost, and the thousands wounded?

Can Americans face up to the fact that there are no good prospects? the alternatives are bad, badder, and baddest. We are in a desperate hole of our own digging. So we should stop. It is an unpalatable choice, I know that. But should we bull ahead, putting more troops and treasure into this miserable enterprise? I wish desperately that when we come to put up a memorial to our most recent dead, that wall will contain less than 1500 names.

A wise young man, 30 years ago, asked, "How can you ask someone to be the last person to die for a mistake?" A good question. Perhaps Americans can summon from somewhere the wisdom to acknowledge that a terrible mistake has been made, and it is better to pay the penalty for that mistake earlier than later.