Independent Rant

Congratulations to the Iraqis. The elections have apparently held successfully and we now await the counting of the ballots. Then the hard work begins -- holding the country together long enough to write and ratify a constitution that all of the factions can live with.

Meanwhile, back in the U.S. of A the Dems have the timetable drums beating. "Let us know how long and how much" they cry. "No, no, you unpatriotic wastrals" reply the Bushies. "To set a timetable would be to tell the insurgents that the country is theirs on X date."

Well, not so fast.

It is the responsibility of the Congress to oversee the expenditures of the government so Senators Kennedy, Biden, et al are doing exactly what they ought to as good public servants. It is not too much to ask for some idea of the plan and its implications. This is not a global fight-to-the-death like WWII; it is a war of supposed liberation that should have a planned endpoint. Are there 120,000 trained Iraqi security forces, as Condi maintains, or under 10,000, as Joe Biden says. The truth is likely somewhere in between and only a timetable with benchmarks will force all parties to deal honestly with reality.

Any timetable would, of course, come with milestones and the requirements held out by W as necessary for withdrawal -- such as a viable Iraqi defense force, an accepted constitution, etc. But, those milestones should have accompanying expectations for how long massive American forces will be needed. It is one year? Three years? Five?

Very few are asking for a timetable that calls for a withdrawal by the end of the week. Nor is anyone expecting an answer as exact as "Thursday, July 14 at 4:27 p.m."

My guess is that the administration knows that a realistic timetable will not be palatable to the American (or Iraqi) public. Military officials who I've heard say that it will take three-to-five years to get the Iraqi military into shape to stand on its own. It takes about three years to get a new division battle ready in the U.S. or Europe and the old Iraqi army did not have a modern command-and-control structure or an ability to coordinate actions between units (Sadaam liked to keep everyone dependent on him). So they have a steep hill to climb.

To dis any thought of a timetable is, in essence, to say that the Iraqis will be dependent on U.S. might for the foreseeable future. It says you see no hope for the Iraqis to be respsonsible for their own country. To label calls for a timetable unpatriotic is insulting -- both to us and the Iraqis. Let's admit that an endgame requires a plan and the sooner we face up to what it will require, the better.