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Originally Posted by richlevy
The next US president is probably going to have to clean this up and he had better start by finding a diplomatic way to say that Bush screwed up. Any attempt by the next adminstration to help Bush paint Iraq in the 'win' column will damage or destroy credibility. Everyone except the most partisan or clueless individual realizes that we screwed up.
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Presidents never say things bad about their predecessors. It is an unwritten rule of the office - much like the Senate. However there is no good exit strategy. Anyone who thinks America is going to fix this country is playing fiction games. Best we can hope to do is warn the Iraqi for our exit in a hope that they will make plans among themselves to avoid a Civil War. IOW up front we must define the exit date - and then let the chips fall where they may.
Those who think somehow we are going to stay and fix things really have no exit strategy other than a solution based upon more status quo. This was the Vietnam reasoning. Obviously this will only be a lose lose strategy - just like Nam. Are they ready to commit 300,000 or 1/2million troops? Unfortunately those who advocate the status quo will not commit to troop numbers and years. Status quo is a no win strategy. Few are even willing (yet) to publically admit to what these former National Security Advisors are saying. Brzezinski and Scowcroft are both well respected for their pragmatic and honest approach to analysis. Neither comes with a political agenda. But what they say will be politically difficult for any politician to endorse. Its not a winning strategy. But it does get America out.