read what chris has to say about the paternalism inherent in the bush administration's position on iraq.
if i were running things i would ask the iraqi government to hold a national referendum of whether foreign troops should stay or go. if they say "go," as pretty much every poll predicts they would choose overwhelmingly, then we would have the political cover to get out of iraq. if iraqi sovereignty and democracy means anything, it means that when the iraqi people want us out we gotta go. if, on the other hand, iraqis say stay, then the occupation would at least have some semblance of legitimacy.
the only reason we haven't let iraqis decide this themselves, the reason that every iraqi party that has been elected on a platform of withdrawal of u.s. troops has been arm-twisted into breaking its promise as soon as it takes power, is because the bush administration doesn't want to leave. the iraq project has nothing to do with democracy in the middle east, if it were they would take the obvious democratic solution. it's just about neo-colonialism.
