5 to 10

A sobering and disturbing exclusive from Newsweek's Michael Hirsh:

As Democrats and Republicans back home try to outdo each other with quick-fix plans for the withdrawal of U.S. troops and funds, what few people seem to have noticed is that Gen. David Petraeus’s new “surge” plan is committing U.S. troops, day by day, to a much deeper and longer-term role in policing Iraq than since the earliest days of the U.S. occupation. How long must we stay under the Petraeus plan? Perhaps 10 years. At least five. In any case, long after George W. Bush has returned to Crawford, Texas, for good.

I have beome a 'bring them home now' person.

The United States has no business occupying Iraq for at least ten, and as many as fifteen years. If we stay that long, we'll never leave. Of course, to any observant rational human being, it is obvious that was the plan all along. Bush himself has said we'll be there at least until January of 2009, when he leaves office. He meant that, in case you hadn't noticed.

We have to get out of this mess sooner rather than later. Don't worry about Dick "Validate al Qaeda" Cheney. It's just a bunch of rhetorical bullying. He just wants Democrats to be afraid, politically, to bring the occupation of Iraq to an end. They shouldn't be. It's the right thing to do.

Just do it. Get behind Russ Feingold and do it. Bring them home. Cut off the funding for the war. Yes, the Republicans will scream bloody murder. Let them scream. Let them say we're cutting off funding for the troops. The American people know better, and if they don't know better, we'll tell them. History will not forgive this generation of Americans if we do the easy thing instead of the right thing. Many of us looked the other way as Bush dragged us into this war. It was wrong. We should stopped at nothing - literally nothing - to keep this from happening. We didn't. We failed. We must not fail now.

The occupation of Iraq must end. If our elected representatives in congress are hesitant, we must push them. We cannot stay in Iraq for another five to ten years. Bring them home.