Iraq Showdown: What Do We Do?

What should we do with Iraq? That is the burning question I'm sure everyone is sick of hearing. Yet two foreign policy giants (or one giant and some other guy) take on the task of trying to solve the puzzle that is Iraq. Both offer opposing views, but to look at it in a larger picture, they both represent two different wings of foreign policy. The realist versus the neoconservative.

The first foreign policy guru is Zbigniew Brzezinski, former National Security Adviser to Jimmy Carter, and a foreign policy realist. Below is an excerpt, click here for the full article.

Both Democratic presidential candidates agree that the United States should end its combat mission in Iraq within 12 to 16 months of their possible inauguration. The Republican candidate has spoken of continuing the war, even for a hundred years, until "victory." The core issue of this campaign is thus a basic disagreement over the merits of the war and the benefits and costs of continuing it.

The case for U.S. disengagement from combat is compelling in its own right. But it must be matched by a comprehensive political and diplomatic effort to mitigate the destabilizing regional consequences of a war that the outgoing Bush administration started deliberately, justified demagogically and waged badly. (I write, of course, as a Democrat; while I prefer Sen. Barack Obama, I speak here for myself.)

As always with foreign policy realists, stability reigns.

The other foreign policy guru is Max Boot, author/historian, and a foreign policy neoconservative. Below is an excerpt, click here for the full article.

The consequences of withdrawal and defeat in Iraq are likely to be even more serious, because it is located in a more volatile and strategically important region. Brzezinski thinks that Shiite-Sunni enmity is "in large part the sour byproduct of the destructive U.S. occupation" and would evaporate after our departure. Few serious analysts share his optimism.

Most of those who have spent any time in Iraq agree with the National Intelligence Estimate issued last year. It warned: "If Coalition forces were withdrawn rapidly ... we judge that the ISF [Iraqi Security Forces] would be unlikely to survive as a non-sectarian national institution; neighboring countries -- invited by Iraqi factions or unilaterally -- might intervene openly in the conflict; massive civilian casualties and forced population displacement would be probable; AQI [al-Qaeda in Iraq] would attempt to use parts of the country -- particularly al-Anbar province -- to plan increased attacks in and outside of Iraq; and spiraling violence and political disarray in Iraq... could prompt Turkey to launch a military incursion."

As always with neoconservatives, image is key.

Both offer their view on what needs to be done in Iraq. Where do I fit? Though I'm not European, Max Boot explains me well...

During my travels in Europe and the Middle East in recent months I have heard many who opposed the invasion urge us to stay until the situation is stabilized...We would hear near-universal moaning that the Americans were leaving Iraq as recklessly as they entered it.

As always...yeah.

Iraq. Nothing more needs to be said.

Where I found these articles:
World Politics Review blog