The Plan for Iraq

When I allow my trained attack dog out of the yard to run the streets, I am responsible for any damage the dog does. The Bible says so and modern statutory law says so. Careless dog owners are locked in American prisons today. When Congress turned America's President loose, Congress became responsible for the consequences. But you would never know that to hear them tell it.

The Congressional response is to dodge responsibility by beating the dog and teaching him to behave differently next time. Bad dog! Senator Joseph Biden recently spoke for Congress when he publicly stated that he had no regrets about authorizing the President to wage war without conditions, he only regrets the incompetence of the President. It is time to remove Senator Biden and his kind, who deny their responsibility and point to others. All who voted to give unconditional war making authority to the President committed the rest of America to the consequences of their irresponsible behavior. Whether we voted for any of them, they are acting in our name. Hence, we are ultimately responsible.

Members of Congress daily remind us the administration has no plan for Iraq. The administration says it is following its plan. What is the Congressional plan for Iraq? They have had a year to create one. I'll tell you what their plan is. It is to interfere with and haggle over any plan there is. I don't have a plan for Iraq and it would hardly make a difference if I did. Right or wrong, the President is taking responsibility for an incompetent Congress and the only plan we have. Congress needs to shut up and do what is asked of it, until it has a better plan. If the people want a better Congress, they are out of luck. This one is the best money can buy. If they won't do their jobs, and they won't, they should forfeit their pay and go home. The world would be a better place for it.

There is one plan that has come out of Congress that should have enough appeal to enough people, to become the reality. Recently announced Democratic Presidential candidate, Dennis Kucinich, says something to the effect of surrendering all U.S. interest in Iraq to the United Nations and withdraw United States forces. I assume he is working on a bill to introduce to Congress.

The intention to turn this whole thing over to the U.N. is diabolically simple. It is enough to take the edge off the global hatred of the United States for its former unilateralism. It answers the question, what can we do to abate the global hatred of the U.S.? It gives the U.N. Security Council opponents exactly what they have been asking for and more - a big job with which to prove its competence and relevance.

While the President remains on the hook for all the promises made to his corporate friends, he is off the hook for the final outcome in Iraq, as much as he wants to see it through. If Congress takes this action before November, 2004, the President won't be standing before the American public asking for four more years to pursue his Iraqi dream.

The minute we have worked out a plan for an orderly withdrawal in cooperation with the other U.N. Security Council members and the transfer of security and redevelopment authority to the U.N.; the pressure will be off all the anti American forces now in Iraq, to drive the U.S. out. It will save American and Iraqi lives.

This action would also take the pressure off the national credit card. In fact, the available credit could be invested in Afghanistan to finish the work the U.S. Government started there. The U.N. could hardly come to the U.S. with hat in hand for Iraq, since the U.S. will always be the most heavily invested Council member for the foreseeable future.

President Bush will always be able to take credit for doing the right thing, even more than today. He took charge when the U.N. refused to do any more than pass new resolutions. When the U.N. decided it was safer to act, he surrendered all authority and future obligation to them. New Age wisdom teaches us to pursue our dreams with no attachment to the outcome. If the President can learn this wisdom in less than a year, his re election should be a shoe in. If he cannot give up the attachment to his Iraqi dream, he does not have a chance of reelection. America can sense the truth of this right now. That sense will only become stronger over the coming year.

Here is the best growth opportunity in U.N. history. Let the world see how the United Nations restores sovereignty to the Iraqi people. Let the world see how it is done.

The President is a gambler. He is not very good at it. You bet and win. You bet again and see you are losing. You leave the table and cut your losses. Play again when your luck holds. The President has no intention to cut losses. He wants to play until he has lost the bankroll. He needs Congress to pull him away from the table. Congress wants to let him play on.

If the President would act on the good advice of a political opponent, before Congress forced him to act, he would be a very popular man with the American people. He would have to renegotiate the promises made to friends but that is as much modern politics as cheating the people and paying lip service.

Personally, I do not believe President Bush will give up the attachment to his Iraqi dream, no matter what the cost to himself and the country. Nor do I see an incompetent Congress imposing the will of the people on him. But we need Dennis to submit bill post haste, so we can identify the incompetent members of Congress, who apparently have no ideas of their own, and only get in the way.

Until such time as there is a better plan than candidate Kucinich has proposed, we ought to let him know we want a bill in Congress now. If he follows through and is opposed by the Congress or the White House, he should be our next President. He is clearly not attached to outcomes.