who don't want to actually do anything about Iraq.
Did you see this today:
5. The "Go Big" strategy of the Pentagon could work. The Pentagon apparently is about to forward three options to Bush for a retreat: "Go Big," meaning more troops for a short time, "Go Long," a gradual withdrawal while training Iraqis, and "Go Home," acknowledging defeat and getting out. Go Big is what McCain and Zinni and others are proposing, as if adding 20,000 or 30,000 troops will do the trick. The argument about more troops, which speaks also to the "incompetence dodge" (i.e., that the war wasn't wrong, just badly managed), has one problem: no one can convincing prove that modest increments in troop strength will change the security situation in Iraq (see #1 above). One would need 300,000 or more troops to have a chance of pacifying Iraq, and that is neither politically feasible or logistically possible, and is therefore a nonstarter. So is "Go Big."
http://www.alternet.org/story/44771 This is the McCain solution and I wouldn't be surprised if certain Big Dems sign on to this as well.
John Kerry 6/14/2006 at Take Back America, speaking after Sen. Hillary Clinton spoke and refused to back any proposals for withdrawing Americans from Iraq:
Let me say it plainly. Let me say it plainly.
It's not enough to argue with the
logistics or to argue about the details or the manner of the conflict's execution or the
failures of competence, as great as they are. It is essential to acknowledge that the war
itself was a mistake. (Cheers, applause.) To say the simple words. (Applause.) To say -
- to say the simple words that contain more truth than pride.
We were misled. We were given evidence that was not true. It was wrong, and I
was wrong to vote for that Iraqi war resolution. (Cheers, applause.) And I will vote --
(prolonged cheers and applause) -- and I will vote -- (cheers and applause continuing) --
We cannot -- one of the great lessons of life is that you cannot change the future if
you're not honest about the past. And we cannot have it both ways in the war in Iraq.
The truth is -- the truth is that America is imprisoned in a failed policy. And as in
Vietnam, we're being told that admitting mistakes -- not the mistakes themselves -- will
provide our enemies with an intolerable propaganda victory. Well, that too, my friends,
is a lie. (Applause.) And history proves it. History proves it.
http://home.ourfuture.org/tba06/docs/0613cfaf-kerry.pdf