We're Gonna Leave At Some Point, Right??

Robert Naiman asks an important question... Is the U.S. Government Planning for Withdrawal from Iraq?

I'll guess the answer is 'no'. Maybe someone should ask them why not.

As Naiman notes, given the administration's failure to have planned for post-invasion Iraq, and their refusal to acknowledge that Congress may get its way in pushing for an exit strategy, it's not far-fetched to foresee a Vietnam repeat of "denial until the last possible moment, followed by helicopters from rooftops".

This failure to plan again-- because President Bush doesn't care and because he plans to pass this off to the next guy-- is as alarming as it not surprising. As Sen. Jim Webb keeps saying, we have to go out smarter than the way we went in.

As Time's Joe Klein lamented last month, "The worst part of the current Bush policy is that our departure from Iraq is going to be a dangerous, delicate operation that needs to be planned in a far more precise, sophisticated way that anything this Administration has attempted so far. ... Given the remarkable incompetence-- and, of course, the utter policy blindness-- of this administration, it is likely that task will fall to the next administration... which will then be blamed, by Rush Limbaugh and Co, for 'losing' Iraq."

Bingo; he gets it. It's going to be a disaster, and it's one we should be preparing for now.

One good proposal I read is from respected professor/journalist Juan Cole, in which he describes one way to work toward a political settlement in Iraq while we prepare our exit. Not that anyone who matters will read it.

[PS- This AP headline says it all... Analysis: Iraq surge may be extended]