No Third Way in Iraq

Fred Kagan believes there is no “third way” in dealing with Iraq. Kagan lists two choices: “stay and try to win, or cut, run, and lose.” This is a fairly neoconservative black and white scenario. Kagan senses any plan to find a middle course will just muddle the situation and end up in failure.

The middle course is what finished America’s involvement with Vietnam. A middle course will make left wing comparisons to Vietnam become an actuality. I hate to say it but “stay the course” is the best plan of success in Iraq.

Staying the course is the end game. The means to the end game has to change. America is dangerously close to the failure of the middle course strategy. There are obvious reasons for this – politics at home.

The “cut and run” crowd give the appearance of expediting leaving Iraq like a partial birth abortion. Take must of the body out and kill the Iraqi option with a lethal injection to the neck, then chop the head off. Shazzam! An unpopular war is ended with only the moral implications to deal with.

The “stay the course” crowd has the correct end in mind but are allowing politics to unsettle the execution of a winning plan.

So let’s change the plan and win.