[Vision2020] Former NSA Director: Get Out of Iraq in 6 months

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

Just another one of those lefty unpatriotic former administration officials:

“Only a complete withdrawal of all U.S. troops — within six months and with no preconditions — can break the paralysis that now enfeebles our diplomacy” in Iraq and the Middle East, writes William E. Odom, a former director of the National Security Agency, in The Los Angeles Times.

Odom even uses those three little words, “cutting and running,” to defend his proposed policy: “The United States upset the regional balance in the Middle East when it invaded Iraq. Restoring it requires bold initiatives, but ‘cutting and running’ must precede them all.” He later concludes, “We must cut and run tactically in order to succeed strategically.” Odom continues:

    It is beyond U.S. power to prevent bloody sectarian violence in Iraq, the growing influence of Iran throughout the region, the probable spread of Sunni-Shiite strife to neighboring Arab states, the eventual rise to power of the anti-American cleric Muqtada Sadr or some other anti-American leader in Baghdad, and the spread of instability beyond Iraq. All of these things and more became unavoidable the day that U.S. forces invaded.

    These realities get worse every day that our forces remain in Iraq. They can’t be wished away by clever diplomacy or by leaving our forces in Iraq for several more years.