Article: WE NEED TO START TALKING SERIOUSLY ABOUT GETTING OUT OF IRAQ

DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Thanks to Cindy Sheehan we now have an anti-war movement.
Or do we?
Public opinion is still polarized on the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. A recent CNN/USA Today Gallup poll found that 56 percent of self-identified Democrats surveyed want to see a total withdrawal of troops, while only 15 percent of Republicans favor a total withdrawal.
Aside from Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., no Democrat in the Senate has called for withdrawal. Aside from Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., no Republican in the Senate has pointedly gone after President Bush for his misbegotten war.
Today there is more criticism of the Bush administration, but few people in Congress seem to have the guts to take on the White House and the right-wing screech monkeys who support the war.
And the corporate press? Forget it. Bush will invoke the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks repeatedly in the coming weeks, and he will be allowed to get away with this demagoguery. As long as Bush is allowed to link 9/11 with the invasion of Iraq without the major media pointing out that he's lying, he will continue to keep saying it.
As we approach the fourth anniversary of 9/11, we need a rational discussion about the war in Iraq.
We need a plan for getting out of Iraq and to avoid future military misadventures built on lies and wishful thinking. We need a plan to rebuild and stabilize a country that remains on the brink of civil war. And we definitely need a plan to deal with the real threats of terrorism without resorting to an endless cycle of war and violence.
To ask these questions at this time is to be seen as an un-American traitor by some in this country.
We need to ask them anyway.
We do not need folks like the American Legion, who last week declared war on anti-war protesters at its annual convention.
Legion national commander Thomas Cadmus told delegates that the Legion "will stand against anyone or any group that would demoralize our troops" and that "public protests against the war here at home while our young men and women are in harm's way on the other side of the globe only provide aid and comfort to our enemies."
So much for the Constitution that every member of the Legion took an oath to uphold and defend when they joined the military. I guess the right to freedom of speech and assembly doesn't appear in Cadmus' copy of the Constitution.
We don't need people such as Bush and his supporters, who believe the best way to support the troops is to make sure they remain in a unwinnable war for the foreseeable future.
We know the Bush administration will never admit they screwed up in Iraq. Lyndon Johnson and Richard Nixon couldn't do it either, when it was clear that Vietnam was a quagmire. But these facts can't be ignored.
-- There was no link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaida.
-- There were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.
-- Thanks to a decade of sanctions and periodic bombings, Iraq posed no threat to any of its neighbors.
-- Saudi Arabia, not Iraq, was the home of nearly all of the 9-11 hijackers and provided most of the men and money to fuel al-Qaida.
-- You can't bring democracy to a country that is more comfortable with tribal culture and would rather have a Islamic theocracy.
-- Having American troops in Iraq has created more terrorists and is al-Qaida's best recruiting tool.
-- Our nation's reputation around the globe has never been lower.
-- Oil prices have never been higher.
-- And the human and monetary cost of this war to America -- nearly 2,000 soldiers dead, 15,000 wounded and more than $250 billion squandered -- has become unsustainable.
An honest, serious discussion of the war would take all of this into account. It would also serve as a strong case for ending it. Again, thinking like this is still considered beyond the pale of polite conversation in Washington. Outside the Beltway, it's still considered treasonous by too many people.
As long as the Bush view of a necessary and righteous war is the only view that is heard by most of America, we will be stuck in Iraq indefinitely.
We can't undo the mistake of invading Iraq. We can, at least, do something about the mistake of staying there.
It's time to talk about the war. It's time to tell our representatives in Washington to start talking about the war. It's time to tell the Bush administration to stop it with the lies and phony emotional appeals and start working on an exit strategy for Iraq.