1 Boring Old Man

The Dilemma:

• If we stay [surge][do what Bush says], we are going along with his obvious initial goal – the occupation of Iraq to:
  • set up an American-friendly puppet government
  • maintain a military presence in the Middle East
  • control the development of the Iraqi Oil Fields
  • some or all of the above
• If we leave, we are abandoning Iraq to the political mess we created by invading them in the first place.

I don’t like either answer. I don’t actually think any of us do, whether we support or oppose the Bush Administration. This is called a "double bind," or an "impossible situation," or the "horns of a dilemma." While there are a number of strategies for dealing with such things, the crux of the matter is that there is no real choice to make in such a "quagmire." The Bush Administration put us into this situation, and set it up to be like this, a situation we "can’t leave."

This dilemma does have a solution, however, unlike many. Step one is to remove Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney from office. They want to "win" an unwinnable war, and occupy a country. We don’t do that. It’s not what Americans do. I suspect that a lot of the violence in Iraq is because they know what Bush wants. With Bush and Cheney out of the picture and someone in control whose true goals are to stop the violence and to guarantee American withdrawal and to negotiate, I expect that a solution would be within easy reach.

The solution to an insoluable problem is always to reformulate the problem.  In this case, the actual problem is Mr. Bush and his Administration, not the war itself. How does one do this? Bring them up for impeachment, both of them. In the House, do a thorough and detailed investigation of the prewar intelligence with wide publicity. Do a thorough and detailed investigation of conduct of the war with wide publicity. Do a thorough and detailed investigation of the NSA and FBI abuse of the Patriot Act with wide publicity. The Impeachment will pass in the House. By the time it gets to the Senate, hopefully there will be enough truth on the table to either have the Senate convict, or to render the Administration impotent. But there is no solution to Iraq with Bush and Cheney in charge. It is our only possible course at this point. It’s called "going between the horns of the dilemma" in classical logic…

And as the recent editorial in The Nation points out, in case there’s any question about who is charged with the responsibility for war, re-read Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution which covers the responsibilities of the Congress:

It’s not just the right of Congress to fire the Commander in Chief, it is their duty…