[Mb-civic] Krugman

[Mike Blaxill]

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/112105J.shtml

Time to Leave
    By Paul Krugman
    The New York Times

    Monday 21 November 2005

    Not long ago wise heads offered some advice
to those of us who had argued since 2003 that the
Iraq war was sold on false pretenses: give it up.
The 2004 election, they said, showed that we
would never convince the American people. They
suggested that we stop talking about how we got
into Iraq and focus instead on what to do next.

    It turns out that the wise heads were wrong.
A solid majority of Americans now believe that we
were misled into war. And it is only now, when
the public has realized the truth about the past,
that serious discussions about where we are and
where we're going are able to get a hearing.

    Representative John Murtha's speech calling
for a quick departure from Iraq was full of
passion, but it was also serious and specific in
a way rarely seen on the other side of the
debate. President Bush and his apologists speak
in vague generalities about staying the course
and finishing the job. But Mr. Murtha spoke of
mounting casualties and lagging recruiting, the
rising frequency of insurgent attacks, stagnant
oil production and lack of clean water.

    Mr. Murtha - a much-decorated veteran who
cares deeply about America's fighting men and
women - argued that our presence in Iraq is
making things worse, not better. Meanwhile, the
war is destroying the military he loves. And
that's why he wants us out as soon as possible.

    I'd add that the war is also destroying
America's moral authority. When Mr. Bush speaks
of human rights, the world thinks of Abu Ghraib.
(In his speech, Mr. Murtha pointed out the
obvious: torture at Abu Ghraib helped fuel the
insurgency.) When administration officials talk
of spreading freedom, the world thinks about the
reality that much of Iraq is now ruled by
theocrats and their militias.

    Some administration officials accused Mr.
Murtha of undermining the troops and giving
comfort to the enemy. But that sort of thing no
longer works, now that the administration has
lost the public's trust.

    Instead, defenders of our current policy have
had to make a substantive argument: we can't
leave Iraq now, because a civil war will break
out after we're gone. One is tempted to say that
they should have thought about that possibility
back when they were cheerleading us into this
war. But the real question is this: When,
exactly, would be a good time to leave Iraq?

    The fact is that we're not going to stay in
Iraq until we achieve victory, whatever that
means in this context. At most, we'll stay until
the American military can take no more.

    Mr. Bush never asked the nation for the
sacrifices - higher taxes, a bigger military and,
possibly, a revived draft - that might have made
a long-term commitment to Iraq possible. Instead,
the war has been fought on borrowed money and
borrowed time. And time is running out. With some
military units on their third tour of duty in
Iraq, the superb volunteer army that Mr. Bush
inherited is in increasing danger of facing a
collapse in quality and morale similar to the
collapse of the officer corps in the early
1970's.

    So the question isn't whether things will be
ugly after American forces leave Iraq. They
probably will. The question, instead, is whether
it makes sense to keep the war going for another
year or two, which is all the time we
realistically have.

    Pessimists think that Iraq will fall into
chaos whenever we leave. If so, we're better off
leaving sooner rather than later. As a Marine
officer quoted by James Fallows in the current
Atlantic Monthly puts it, "We can lose in Iraq
and destroy our Army, or we can just lose."

    And there's a good case to be made that our
departure will actually improve matters. As Mr.
Murtha pointed out in his speech, the insurgency
derives much of its support from the perception
that it's resisting a foreign occupier. Once
we're gone, the odds are that Iraqis, who don't
have a tradition of religious extremism, will
turn on fanatical foreigners like Zarqawi.

    The only way to justify staying in Iraq is to
make the case that stretching the U.S. army to
its breaking point will buy time for something
good to happen. I don't think you can make that
case convincingly. So Mr. Murtha is right: it's
time to leave.