> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.smdp.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Modest proposal for leaving Iraq
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/modest-proposal-for-leaving-iraq/
- Published: 2007-10-26T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-25T01:12:06.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Paul Hackett Guest Commentary*

N EARLY FIVE YEARS AFTER TH E infamous “mission accomplished” speech and the flightsuit spectacle on the USS Abraham Lincoln, one inescapable truth remains: Our nation’s leaders are no closer to solving the political puzzle of the Iraq War. It’s also unlikely that continued political stunts from both sides of the aisle will move our country any closer to a satisfactory strategy. More importantly, until Iraq is solved, we can’t begin to grapple with the many other pressing issues, such as a faltering and outdated infrastructure, a troublesome economic outlook, and our increasingly challenged title of “world leader” and the uncertainties that entails.

During World War II, 20 million Americans put on the uniform in support of the war effort out of a population of 140 million. At home, people tended victory gardens, collected scrap metal or other necessary elements to fuel a war effort that was the engine that allowed those in uniform to win the war. And when the war was over, it was these same people who electrified and plumbed rural America and built a transportation infrastructure that catapulted the U.S. to world leader status.

Today’s lack of widespread military participation allows the Iraq war to continue. So few Americans share in the risk or have seen firsthand just how misused our military has been in Iraq to achieve a poorly defined and more poorly managed political goal. Unfortunately, under the daunting political pressure of nonstop congressional and presidential campaigning and fundraising demands, it is unlikely we can expect much more than lip-gloss solutions from our “political class.”

The challenge of when and how we leave Iraq remains far from clear. In the absence of such leadership, the following steps are offered as a strategic road map. 1\. Establish our military bases in Iraq off the beaten path — in the endless desert and countryside. Remove them from the cities where soldiers and Marines are little more than “beat cops.” There is no historical basis to believe that armed 21-year-olds can “win hearts and minds.” 2\. Establish a reduced military force at these strategic desert locales that act as an internal and regional “quick reaction force” to prevent conventional foreign military intervention from Syria or Iran. In short, cordon the country. 3\. Don’t Balkanize Iraq. It further complicates the future of the country and is inconsistent with the historical comity that heretofore existed among the sects, factions and tribes of Iraq for centuries. 4\. Disengage from the internal politics of Iraq. It’s their democracy. 5\. Allow the Sunni minority to reestab-lish its leadership role in the country. While this is historically inevitable, the process will not be pretty. 6\. Engage in quiet diplomacy with regional governments to reintroduce stability to the region. Remember, Nixon went to China and Reagan met Gorbachev, the leader of the “Evil Empire,” in Reykjavik. 7\. Turn off the pipeline of unsupervised, unaccounted for, and misspent capital flowing from our treasury to the pockets of American and international corporations. They have yet to offer any strategy for success or demonstrate any sign of objective progress toward rebuilding Iraq or competently training Iraq’s police and security forces. Ice cream and roast beef served in the Green Zone’s embassy cafeteria is not a sign of success and doesn’t win the hearts and minds of Iraqis. It only makes for fat Americans in Iraq, and eventually, pigs get slaughtered.

Finally, the military has the step-by-step plan for militarily pulling back from Iraq and doesn’t need self-promoting jabbering politicians to tell it how to do it. What the military does need is political leadership that provides a political exit strategy. In an effort to bring our fighting men and women home here are some objective accomplishments that we should all be willing to cite as sufficient in order to support our withdrawal from Iraq: • We freed Iraq from a brutal dictator. • We gave Iraqis the right to vote. • We wrote a Constitution for the Iraqis. • We trained their military and pointed them in the right direction.

Mission accomplished. The war is over. Let’s focus on stabilizing the region, not arbitrating ancient conflicts between cultures. Let’s spend our capital and energy rebuilding our nation for our children and grandchildren, just as WWII’s “great-est generation” did for us.

PAUL HACKETT by sending e-mails to, which will be forwarded.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on October 26, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/102607.pdf?ref=smdp.com)