The Boston Herald September 10, 2007
Withdrawal pace sparks fierce debate
By Jessica Van Sack
A U.S. withdrawal could bring peace overnight to Iraq. Or it could launch genocide and regional chaos, with disastrous consequences for the United States.
Which view you hear depends on who’s talking.
The debate over whether a troop withdrawal in America’s interest is the backdrop to U.S. Army Gen. David Patraeus’ expected appeal to Congress for more time.
“I dare say that if we left, al-Qaeda would disappear because Iraqis would take care of business and eliminate them on their own,” said Rep. William Delahunt (D-Quincy), who will hear Petraeus’ testimony today as a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “Until the U.S. withdrawsthere will be no political reconciliation in Iraq.”
New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, a former ambassador to the United Nations, now running for president, called for a complete withdrawal in a recent Washington Post op-ed.
“The facts suggest that a rapid, complete withdrawal, not a drawn out, Vietnam-like process would be the most responsible and effective course of action,” he wrote.
Others argue the opposite, calling withdrawal immoral and irresponsible. GOP candidate John McCain said recently, “To concede defeat, as many leading Democrats now advocate, would strengthen al-Qaeda, empower Iran and other hostile powers in the Middle East, unleash a full-scale civil war in Iraq that could quite possibly provoke genocide there. The consequences would threaten us for years, and I am certain would eventually draw us into a wider and more difficult war.”
But Sen. Barack Obama, (D-Illinois), said in July even the potential for genocide isn’t a good enough reason to keep U.S. forces in Iraq, while a New York Times [NYT] editorial acknowledged that a U.S. withdrawal might lead to genocide but said keeping U.S. troops there “will only make things worse.”
John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org predicted that walking away from Iraq prematurely would create a power vacuum in Iraq and put Saudi Arabia and Iran at odds, jacking up the price of oil and bringing catastrophic economic consequences. American Studies Professor Jacob Cohen of Brandeis University said a quick pull-out from Iraq could yield “enormous consequences.”
“In the ’70s, when we pulled very quickly out of Vietnam, that affected America’s standing in the world and its security,” Cohen said. “If we do that in Iraq, al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and Hamas are going to declare a massive victory.”
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