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Who Wants Us Out of Iraq? The Three Stooges
If I were Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi, I would be worried if Osama Bin Laden and I saw things the same way. (Personal tip: it ought to be a cause for serious introspection if you find yourself in agreement with, say, Paris Hilton on any topic of world importance.) There is no more momentous world issue than Iraq and where do our three stooges come down on the primary issue of when the Americans should leave? In unison they are chanting: “NOW!”
But what do the Iraqis say? After all, there is no one more vested in the future of Iraq than her own people. In today’s Washington Post the foreign minister of Iraq, Hoshyar Zebari, pleads, “Don’t abandon us.”
Why should the world stay engaged in Iraq?
Zebari eloquently writes, “There is no denying the difficulties Iraq faces, and no amount of good news can obscure the demons of terrorism and sectarianism that have risen in my country. But there is too much at stake to risk failure, and everything to gain by helping us protect our hard-won democratic achievements and emerge as a stable, self-sustaining country.”
“We remain determined in spite of our losses. Spectacular attacks may dominate foreign headlines, but they cannot change the reality that Iraq has made steady political, economic and social progress over the past four years. We continue to strengthen our nascent democratic institutions, pursue national reconciliation and expand Iraqi security forces. The Baghdad security plan was conceived to give us breathing space to expedite political and economic development by “securing and holding” neighborhoods across the capital. There is no quick fix, but there have been real results: Winning public confidence has led to a spike in intelligence, a disruption of terrorist networks and the capture of key leaders, as well as the discovery of weapons caches. In Anbar province, Sunni sheikhs and insurgents have turned against al-Qaeda and to the side of Iraqi security forces. This would have been unthinkable even six months ago.”
Zebari is not alone in pleading for us to say. Fouad Ajami, director of the Middle East Studies program at Johns Hopkins University, after recently returning from his seventh trip to Iraq where he saw significant progress in the security situation reports, “Even though the Pew survey will tell you everyone wants the Americans to leave, nobody wants us to leave in Iraq. People really know what this American presence is all about. It is their chance to build a new country.”
So who wants us to leave? The Three Stooges: Harry, Nancy, and Osama.
Harry and Nancy should be more careful of the ideological company they keep.