Pull Out Now

"Pull Out Now!". It is the current sacred incantation of the Smart Set.

It is based on a number of questionable assumptions:

• The United States is evil;
• All unrest in the world results from evil interference by the United States;
• The conflict in Iraq would quicky subside once US troops are no longer present to offend and oppress the Iraqis;
• The resources committed to the war would be better used at home - here in the US.

To support their thesis, the Smart Set can point to a number of historic withdrawals:

• Cambodia. Imperialist US troops were followed by the benign Pol Pot;
• Vietnam. The US withdrew and the communists quickly crushed the corrupt government we left behind.
• Lebanon. Following local protests - expressed in the form of the bombing of the US Marine barracks - the US withdrew. The civil war continued, but it was just a civil war.
• Afghanistan. The US helped expell the Soviets, and then wisely and appropriately withdrew, making room for the exemplary Taliban.
• Somalia. Bill Clinton cut and ran. The killing continued. But it was just another civil war.
• Monica.
• Gulf War I. Hussein was left in power and proceeded to savagely repress the Kurds, the Marsh Arabs and anyone else he disliked.

Clearly an abrupt withdrawal results in chaos and continued, and often increased, killing. But those who die are dark skinned and so of little importance to the Smart Set. More significantly, most of these examples involved small, remote and rather poor nations. Whether those nations prospered or collapsed would have litte effect on daily life in America. Those who chant "No blood for oil," truly mean "None of my blood for far away darkies."

But that complacency, and that racism, cannot be applied in the case of Iraq. Somalia is small, distant, and poor. Its greatest assets appear to be sand, heat and starving people. Iraq, in contrast, has vast oil reserves, which make it very valuable real estate. It neighbors other nations that also hold vast oil reserves - more valuable real estate. Indeed, Iraq sits roughly in the middle of perhaps the most valuable real estate in the world - anyone who controls the Middle East oil fields will hold the industrial world hostage. Until the industrialized nations move to take away that control.

Is that future the paranoid delusion of a closet jingoist? Isn't that what they said about Churchill in the 1930s? Delusions of grandeur aside, consider that Iran's current government believes that it is called to spread its version of Islam across the world. It is violently opposed to Western democracy, to Israel and to its Arab neighbors. Reliable reports indicate that Iran is indeed fomenting violence in Iraq, both to drive out the US troops and to destabilize that nation, all towards taking over Iraq.

In the past, the US could "Pull Out Now" with relative impunity. Willing the killings would doubtless continue, and probably increase, American security would not be immediately placed at risk. Not so if the Middle East is allowed to dissolve into chaos.

Critics of the war point to the rising price of gasoline as just one of the adverse consequences of the conflict. Yet those price increases pale beside the consequences we would face were we to "Pull Out Now."