Stay the course. We hear that from Republicans and Democrats these days, in regard to Iraq. Unfortunately, it is an absolutely horrible idea and the fact that many Democrats pander to this right wing meme is disheartening. To understand this, we must first ask, "What is the course?" Answered below the fold:
The course that we have been on as a country occupying Iraq has been one of failure. We failed to place enough troops in to prevent looting and maintain some stability immediately after the invasion, we failed to quickly repair the infrastructure, we failed to give the Iraqi people a true democracy of their own making and we failed to give our troops and their commanders what they needed to successfully complete their mission. We could continue down this list as there are more failures than what I'm listing obviously listing here, but that is the
course we as a nation have chosen in Iraq.
So the message of staying the course is a message of failure. Everytime anyone says we must stay the course, they are buying into the Republican meme/mantra about the course we have chosen in Iraq and it is a path to repeated and continuing failure. To say you believe we must stay the course is to say you back what the Bush administration is doing in Iraq. Because, staying the course is Bush's plan for Iraq.
We don't need to stay The course. What we need to do is stabilize Iraq. We need to come up with a plan that will stabilize Iraq with forces other than U.S. Forces alone. This means compromises must be made, Halliburton needs to be kicked out of Iraq and handed it's ass on a silver platter, along with Bushco, and the U.N. must be put in control there. That's what is needed. We don't need or want to continue the policy of failure set forth by the Bush administration.
I do agree that a unilateral U.S. withdrawl would be a catastrophe, but unless we get an "honest" coalition into Iraq ASAP, that's where it's headed, regardless of whether or not anyone wants it.
But please, PLEASE, Dem politicians, stop swallowing the Republican meme for Iraq. We don't want to stay The course we want to stabilize Iraq, because staying the course means failure.
I know not all Dems are using the stay the course meme, but those who are need to be hauled into Reid's/Pelosi's/Dean's office and have a little chat on how to respond in a way that is positive to the Democrats while highlighting the failure that is Bushco.