It’s time to put my political science hat on.
Josh Marshall makes an excellent point about the fact that this President keeps saying that we will stay in Iraq until we achieve victory, but has no vision for what that victory looks like nor a plan to achieve it:
So at the moment, there’s not even a reasoned fight between staying in and getting out. Getting out is the only coherent strategy or approach on the table. That doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do. But it is clear and defineable. On the other hand, there is the president, who hasn’t put forward any concrete description of what our goals are or any coherent (let alone, a good plan) plan for accomplishing them.
It seems to me at this point that those who want the war to continue have a higher bar to clear than those who want us to pull out. At least a pull out has some definable measures of success - the end of American troops dying by the thousands, the possible winding down of the insurgency as the main reason they are fighting is removed, and so on.
On the other hand, staying in seems to have no realistic possibility of success - at least with the President’s current “stay the course” plan which hasn’t worked for over two years (so why would it work now?).
Putting my theological hat back on, what is that saying about “without vision, the people perish?”
