Democrats know, whether they'd like to admit it or not, that there is no military solution for Iraq, there is no point for our troops to be in Iraq (nor has there been since the summer of 2003) and any violence that will result from a withdrawal will surely occur even if our troops stay. The logical thing to do is to leave Iraq and cooperate with Middle Eastern nations to help secure Iraqi borders and prevent a regional war. Ideally our exit will motivate the Iraqi government to settle sectarian strife.
I believe a lot of Republicans understand this as well, yet they continue to steer the debate towards a 'stay the course' strategy of failure with the intention of appearing strong willed. John McCain advocates sending another 20,000 troops to Iraq so we can take one more shot at quelling the violence... calling that a half-measure would be a severe overstatement. In reality, for such a scheme to work it would take hundreds of thousands more troops and an actual plan for victory. That's not what the Republicans want. Like I said before, their only intention is to appear strong willed. So let's call their bluff and give them a strategy they can really sink their teeth into. More...
Operation One Last Chance
• Reinstitute a military draft in the U.S.
• Draft and train 2 million Americans to be deployed to Iraq.
• Deploy 500,000 troops at a time to quell sectarian violence in Iraq. Cooperate with Iran, Syria, Turkey, Jordan and Kuwait to secure the Iraqi borders and prevent sectarian violence from spilling into the greater Middle East region. The Iraqi government has 18 months to put together a political solution.
• Appropriate $500 billion for the reconstruction of Iraq, to be spent by the Iraqi parliament under the condition that sectarian violence is ended. A third party should take on the responsibility of providing oversight for the spending.
• Talk directly with Iran and North Korea about their nuclear ambitions.
• Institute a substantial war tax for the wealthiest 20% in our nation as well as large corporations.
• Pass a new G.I. bill which would include the following: Free college education for troops, spouses and children. Individual retirement accounts for all troops/spouses. Monthly Social Security payments to families of troops who are deployed. Low-interest government loans for veterans to mortgage a home or business. All debt previous to service wiped clean. Health insurance vouchers for troops, spouses and children. One payment of $50,000 at the end of second tour (Only two tours per troop).
• Apply a windfall profit tax to oil companies with stricter regulations on price gouging. New taxes will subsidize energy costs for low-income families and fund research for alternative energy.
• Mandate new fuel-efficiency standards and ban non-hybrid car production after 2010.
• Ratify the Kyoto Treaty.
• Repeal fat-cat tax giveaways and use funds to build public transportation infrastructure in all major cities out into their suburbs. This plan should include a North American high-speed electric rail system for the long run.
I don’t know how realistic any of these specific proposals are. They are only meant to be an example of what the Democratic Party could propose to shut the Republicans up when they yammer on about ‘victory’ and sending more troops. If they really want to send more troops to sacrifice their lives, if they really think that is the only way to clean up this gigantic mess, then we need to do it the right way. First we need to define victory, then we need the troops, then we need the funding and most importantly we MUST ensure that we never allow young Americans to die for oil EVER AGAIN. That means energy independence by 2025 if not earlier. The Republicans, of course, will never agree to any of this and will be exposed as the posturing traitors that they are. That’s when we set a withdrawal date.