Even former CIA chief says we should leave Iraq now
The US should cut its losses, pull out of Iraq promptly and never again use its military might to build a nation according to its own values, according to former CIA chief John Deutch. That’s a pretty damning pronouncement coming from someone who used to hold George H.W. Bush’s job as head of the United States’ covert army. These are the guys who intervene in other countries for a living. If they think the war is hopeless, it’s really hopeless. Gradually more and more members of the ruling class are speaking aloud of the need to get out.
Several commentators quoted by ZNet
…take issue with the conventional assumption that the U.S. military presence is a stabilising factor without which Iraq’s descent into civil war would be more certain or bloody.They also argue that the administration’s argument [for] Washington’s global “credibility” is outweighed by other considerations, including the damage that the continued U.S. presence does to U.S. interests in the Arab and Islamic world more generally and the reduced ability of the U.S. to deal with other important security challenges while it remains bogged down in Iraq.
As noted by Deutch, continued investment in a losing proposition could result in “an even worse loss of credibility down the road.”
Of course Deutch thinks the U.S. has some credibility to lose, with which I strenuously disagree.