30.9.04

Opções difíceis

(sugestão de leitura especialmente dedicada ao MacGuffin)

A Win/Win Exit Strategy, por Thomas Gale Moore, senior fellow na Hoover Institution:

Bush and Kerry have both said that they want to bring the troops home. At the same time they claim that our military cannot be pulled out quickly because Iraq would collapse into chaos. (What is it in now?) But would the violence get worse or better if American troops left? Almost all the violence so far has been directed at either the occupying forces or their perceived allies, the Iraqi militia and police. U.S. troops are obviously a major part of the problem. Are they also part of the solution? Were the Americans to leave, civil war might break out; then again, it might not. Nevertheless, if both sides want the same thing - "Americans go home" - a deal may be possible.

After the election, the president-elect should announce that, if the resistance fighters stop the violence, all U.S. troops will be out of Iraq within three months. The president or his elected successor should go on to promise that the U.S. will stop its attacks in the country and will return its forces to their bases. In other words, the United States should announce a unilateral ceasefire.