[Mb-civic] Two Deadlines and an Exit By JOHN F. KERRY

[Michael Butler]

The New York Times
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April 5, 2006
Op-Ed Contributor
Two Deadlines and an Exit
By JOHN F. KERRY

Washington

WE are now in the third war in Iraq in as many years. The first was against
Saddam Hussein and his supposed weapons of mass destruction. The second was
against terrorists whom, the administration said, it was better to fight
over there than here. Now we find our troops in the middle of an escalating
civil war.

Half of the service members listed on the Vietnam Memorial Wall died after
America's leaders knew our strategy would not work. It was immoral then and
it would be immoral now to engage in the same delusion. We want democracy in
Iraq, but Iraqis must want it as much as we do. Our valiant soldiers can't
bring democracy to Iraq if Iraq's leaders are unwilling themselves to make
the compromises that democracy requires.

As our generals have said, the war cannot be won militarily. It must be won
politically. No American soldier should be sacrificed because Iraqi
politicians refuse to resolve their ethnic and political differences.

So far, Iraqi leaders have responded only to deadlines ‹ a deadline to
transfer authority to a provisional government, and a deadline to hold three
elections.

Now we must set another deadline to extricate our troops and get Iraq up on
its own two feet.

Iraqi politicians should be told that they have until May 15 to put together
an effective unity government or we will immediately withdraw our military.
If Iraqis aren't willing to build a unity government in the five months
since the election, they're probably not willing to build one at all. The
civil war will only get worse, and we will have no choice anyway but to
leave.

If Iraq's leaders succeed in putting together a government, then we must
agree on another deadline: a schedule for withdrawing American combat forces
by year's end. Doing so will empower the new Iraqi leadership, put Iraqis in
the position of running their own country and undermine support for the
insurgency, which is fueled in large measure by the majority of Iraqis who
want us to leave their country. Only troops essential to finishing the job
of training Iraqi forces should remain.

For this transition to work, we must finally begin to engage in genuine
diplomacy. We must immediately bring the leaders of the Iraqi factions
together at a Dayton Accords-like summit meeting. In a neutral setting,
Iraqis, working with our allies, the Arab League and the United Nations,
would be compelled to reach a political agreement that includes security
guarantees, the dismantling of the militias and shared goals for
reconstruction.

To increase the pressure on Iraq's leaders, we must redeploy American forces
to garrisoned status. Troops should be used for security backup, training
and emergency response; we should leave routine patrols to Iraqi forces.
Special operations against Al Qaeda and other foreign terrorists in Iraq
should be initiated only on hard intelligence leads.

We will defeat Al Qaeda faster when we stop serving as its best recruitment
tool. Iraqis ultimately will not tolerate foreign jihadists on their soil,
and the United States will be able to maintain an over-the-horizon troop
presence with rapid response capacity. An exit from Iraq will also
strengthen our hand in dealing with the Iranian nuclear threat and allow us
to repair the damage of repeated deployments, which flag officers believe
has strained military readiness and morale.

For three years now, the administration has told us that terrible things
will happen if we get tough with the Iraqis. In fact, terrible things are
happening now because we haven't gotten tough enough. With two deadlines, we
can change all that. We can put the American leadership on the side of our
soldiers and push the Iraqi leadership to do what only it can do: build a
democracy.

John F. Kerry, a senator from Massachusetts, was the Democratic nominee for
president in 2004.

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