Baird analyzed

Thanks to thehim for this analysis. Since Brian Baird is our U.S. Representative, I have pasted this post in its entirety. I recommend that you click on “thehim”s name and check out the site.

Falling for the Spin?

– posted by thehim

I’m not going to speculate on why southwestern Washington Congressman Brian Baird is chugging the Bush Administration Kool-Aid right now. I understand the concerns over the growing humanitarian crisis, but believing that the way to stop it is to follow through on what created the humanitarian crisis in the first place is pretty horrendous logic. As Americans, we do tend to believe that we’re problem solvers and that our military is a jack-of-all-trades fixing machine that takes problems and turns them into solutions. Unfortunately, in reality, there are some things our military can not fix. Iraq and it’s current political stalemate is one of them. It’s very difficult to accept this, but it’s becoming more and more vital by the day that we do. I want to go through Baird’s op-ed and try to make this as clear as I can:

The invasion of Iraq may be one of the worst foreign-policy mistakes in the history of our nation. As tragic and costly as that mistake has been, a precipitous or premature withdrawal of our forces now has the potential to turn the initial errors into an even greater problem just as success looks possible.

I have absolutely no idea where he gets the idea that success has started to look possible. What many in the Bush Administration wanted us to believe is that the recent escalation of troops would provide some kind of breathing room for the Iraqi government to reconcile their differences peacefully. By all measures, this is not happening. The Iraqi government has become more fractured. The Iraqi populace has become less stable. The numbers of displaced Iraqis continues to rise rapidly. And the number of our troops succumbing to violence keeps growing.

As a Democrat who voted against the war from the outset and who has been frankly critical of the administration and the post-invasion strategy, I am convinced by the evidence that the situation has at long last begun to change substantially for the better.

If you’re interested in hearing the evidence, you’ll have to wait. While Baird repeats this claim that the situation has “begun to change substantially for the better,” he’s not too eager to share the evidence until a little later (you’ll see why).

I believe Iraq could have a positive future.

I do too, but I’m convinced that Iraq will have a better chance at a positive future the sooner we get out of there. No one believes that bad things won’t happen after we leave. What those who support withdrawal are saying is that our presence there is only raising the temperature. It’s fueling extremism. While many of us may believe that there’s a light at the end of the tunnel for Iraq under our occupation, the Iraqis overwhelmingly don’t. And very few of them will sacrifice in order to reach that light as long as we’re there.

Our diplomatic and military leaders in Iraq, their current strategy, and most importantly, our troops and the Iraqi people themselves, deserve our continued support and more time to succeed.

The Iraqi people certainly need our support. What we’re questioning is whether or not our military presence is the most effective way to support them. If the Iraqis feel that our presence is counterproductive, then it’s very possible that we’re not supporting the Iraqi people by supporting President Bush’s strategy.