John Kerry: Leadership on Iraq

An alternative to the Bush lack of planning in Iraq has been proposed by Senator John Kerry in an opinion piece in the New York Times. It's well worth reading -- and more importantly -- well worth serious consideration by all.

Here's part of what Kerry proposed in today's New York Times:

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.

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Below is what former Senator Gary Hart wrote in The Huffington Post about the Kerry plan:

John Kerry has drawn a line in the sands of Iraq and has forcefully and specifically laid down a marker for the administration, the Democratic party, and the nation.

No other public official to date has had the courage to face the truth, that Iraqi democracy is now, finally, up to the Iraqi people, not the United States.

The Bush administration must now be required to respond to the Kerry time-table, to refute it with more than slogans and rhetoric, and to tell the American people, once and for all, when and how we intend to extricate ourselves from this Vietnam-in-the-desert.

Other Democratic leaders must now be heard on the question of whether they agree or disagree, in specific terms, with the Kerry initiative.

By revealing the brutal truth, that we cannot impose liberal democracy on a people that will not achieve and protect it for themselves, Senator Kerry has gone a very long way toward filling the vacuum in Democratic party leadership felt by too many Americans.

For those of us who never accepted the Bush administration's justification of the war, and did not accept the default argument that we were in the evil-dictator-removal business, Senator Kerry has offered a voice of opposition and a carefully constructed plan for returning the responsibility for Iraqi governance to the Iraqi people and their political leaders.

This is a very welcome development for American foreign policy and prestige in the new world of the 21st century.