Common Sense in Spades

William E. Odom, a retired Army lieutenant general, who was head of Army intelligence and director of the National Security Agency under Ronald Reagan has written an op-ed in the Washington Post today that is a solid analysis Iraq and a rough roadmap for getting us the hell out. First, we must admit failure -- it's a brutal fact. Face it and deal with it. It's not hard to do this if it's inevitable. Among other great points are these in particular:

First, the assumption that the United States could create a liberal, constitutional democracy in Iraq defies just about everything known by professional students of the topic. Of the more than 40 democracies created since World War II, fewer than 10 can be considered truly "constitutional" -- meaning that their domestic order is protected by a broadly accepted rule of law, and has survived for at least a generation. None is a country with Arabic and Muslim political cultures. None has deep sectarian and ethnic fissures like those in Iraq....

Second, to expect any Iraqi leader who can hold his country together to be pro-American, or to share American goals, is to abandon common sense. It took the United States more than a century to get over its hostility toward British occupation....

We must continue to fight in order to "support the troops." This argument effectively paralyzes almost all members of Congress.... But the strangest aspect of this rationale for continuing the war is the implication that the troops are somehow responsible for deciding to continue the president's course. That political and moral responsibility belongs to the president, not the troops....

Realigning our diplomacy and military capabilities to achieve order [not, impossibly, a "democracy friendly to America"] will hugely reduce the numbers of our enemies and gain us new and important allies. This cannot happen, however, until our forces are moving out of Iraq. Why should Iran negotiate to relieve our pain as long as we are increasing its influence in Iraq and beyond? Withdrawal will awaken most leaders in the region to their own need for U.S.-led diplomacy to stabilize their neighborhood.

This last point may not be true, but it sounds much more realistic and hard-headed than our current, doomed "objective", particularly since it is self-evident we need, at a minimum, help from all key players to salvage the disastrous situation.