'Getting out of Iraq' is a lot more than just leaving Iraq

Posted by Jan Frel at 9:33 PM on May 14, 2007.

A friend of mine, Joe Costello, who has worked on Ted Kennedy, Jesse Jackson, Jerry Brown and Howard Dean's campaign sends me this -- a mock-up speech of what he thinks a political candidate should say about Iraq and the American empire:

We've reached an epic point in American history. We must leave Iraq. We must leave immediately. The games in Washington DC that too cheaply value the lives of both Americans and Iraqis must end. The people of Iraq must be given the sovereignty to decide their own destiny and work with their neighbors to create stability. But, I'm here to talk about what it means for Americans to immediately end this ill begotten war.

After 4 years of blood and trillions of dollars of waste, we still seem incapable of an honest discussion about the war. An honest discussion begins by admitting this has not simply been the mistake of one administration, of one Congress, or of one party -- Iraq is the culmination of decades of bipartisan policy. If we are going to be honest, we have to now admit much of this policy has been a failure of both America's role in the Middle East and our role in the world.

The United States has taken on a role in world affairs that it cannot fulfill, nor a role any one country can fill. We have tried to become the world's policeman and no one country can be the world's policeman. Some very smart and honorable people figured this out after the Second World War. It is why they created the United Nations. We don't want to be the world's policeman. We cannot afford to be the world's policeman. We need to redefine our global role and work as an equal with the rest of the world to forge our mutual security.

But let's be even more honest about the Middle East. Let's talk about oil. It's a topic on everyone's minds these days as we pay record prices for gas. This extra cost is beginning to slow our economy. Let's be honest about our Middle East policy, since 1973 when we discovered oil was a limited resource and two-thirds of the remaining global reserves were located around the Persian Gulf. In his 1980 State of the Union speech, President Carter stated because oil was so essential to the American economy the Persian Gulf was an American "national interest" and if need be, we would secure it militarily. This has been American policy concerning the Gulf and oil for three decades. The plain facts are in the last three and half decades since we learned oil was a limited resource, our federal government has spent over 12 trillion dollars on the military and barely a hundred billion dollars on developing non-nuclear alternative fuels. Let's be honest, this this hasn't been the policy of one man, one Congress, or one party, it's been our American policy. Now we must be brutally honest, this policy has failed.

So today, I'm asking Americans to join me in telling the Congress and the President, the war is over, bring the troops home. But this isn't simply the end of an old policy, it's beginning of a new policy that redefines a new global role for America in the 21st century, not as sole superpower, or global policeman, but as a global equal. We shall seek to cooperate with all other nations on this increasingly small planet in meeting the universal needs and desires we share as human beings.

We need to show the people in Washington that we are dead serious and send a message to the troops coming home that we are doing this with them first and foremost in mind. I want each of us to pledge to cut our energy use. Let's cut our oil use 20% by the time the last American troop leaves Iraq. If you commute the same route every day start a car-pool or take public transit a couple times a week. Let's walk to the store once a week or ride a bike; the kids baseball games this summer, let's call our fellow parents and pile into the same car. Let's join together and send DC a message, the war is done and we, the people, have begun to create a new energy security.

I started by saying this was an epic point in American history and that means just as in all such points in the past, it is the American people who will be decisive, not the President, not the Congress. In this era of deep political cynicism such an idea will be met with laughter and derision. But I believe the American people will meet this challenge. A fundamental democratic republican courage still resides in every American, and this is a courage that can honestly face failure and then set a new course for the future. It is a courage that sacrifices some of the comforts of the present for the benefits of posterity. Let us end this war and begin anew.

Tagged as: iraq, american empire