Frame Iraq Redeployment as forced Responsibility

ILLUSTRATED: The responsible decision, and the moral decision in Iraq is to redeploy from a political struggle to strategic positions abroad and at home.

As I begin writing this, Karl Rove is on the television, criticizing members of our party for advocating a "cut 'n run" strategy, after voting for the U.N.-Iraq resolution. Rove claims we advocate leaving when the going got tough. He claims we will look weak and humiliated. He claims nobody will trust us.

-The administration never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity. The career staff at the State Department and the military had plans of how to win. But the political leadership messed up Iraq.
-A failed occupation led to a terrorist insurgency from 2003-2005. And now a civil war.
-Only the Iraqi people can solve this political problem, not American soldiers. The only incentive Iraqi politicians have to get their act together is the knowledge that they are gradually losing American protection.
-Compare it to welfare dependency. You have only a few years of support, and that limit forces people to get their act together. FRAME IT AS FORCED RESPONSIBILITY.
-Lastly, it is immoral to keep American troops in harm's way so politicians won't be embarrassed. The whole world knows Bush screwed up. Bush is the embarrassment. We must redeploy to strategic positions that will strengthen us, not continue to drain us.