August 24, 2005 @ 10:00 am
Getting Out of Iraq
The Arizona Democratic Party held its quarterly State Committee meeting this past Weekend in Flagstaff, AZ. A full report on this meeting and on a very significant development within the Party itself: the formation of a Progressive caucus within the Arizona State Democratic Committee, is available here. link
The State Committee concluded its meeting with the passage of the obligatory closing resolution, which in part called for the removal of our troops from Iraq as expeditiously and responsibly as possible. I understand ‘expeditiously.’ It means we should get out with speed and efficiency. But ‘responsibly?’ Aye, there’s the rub. In this context what does that mean? How do we get out responsibly?
I think we do that by acknowledging that we are responsible for a good deal of the suffering and destruction in Iraq. (Suicide bombers are responsible too, of course, but we sowed the seeds of that whirlwind.)
Our response to that suffering must consider the Iraqi people as a whole, simply as human beings, and not as ‘fanatics’ or ‘fundamentalists;’ not as 'friends' or 'enemies.' We have to be willing to give up reformist notions of what Iraq should be. We must act without asking to be loved in return.
We must be willing to spend a significant amount- equal to some portion of the 189 billion dollars we have already spent on the President’s bogus war- to rebuild Iraq. We must rebuild and re-equip schools and hospitals, re-build the electric power grid, modernize the water system, and so forth.
The Democratic Party, and the Peace Movement, have a responsibility to develop and advocate such a plan. Without such a plan they risk being nothing more than political poseurs.
