That's the verdict of National Review editors.
Warner wants to pull out 5,000 troops by Christmas, on the theory that this will send a “signal” to the Iraqi government and to the region that we aren’t going to stay indefinitely. He argues that Iraqi prime minister Nouri al-Maliki will be likelier to perform if we make a gesture toward leaving, as if Maliki were fated to be ineffective with 160,000 U.S. troops in country but might bridge the country’s sectarian divides and guide contentious legislation to passage if we went down to 155,000. Warner maintains that the withdrawal would also “say to the bordering nations . . . why don’t you come forward with your ideas, if you’ve got a better one, and try and help the United States of America resolve this problem?” So we are supposed to believe that Syria and Iran will foment chaos in Iraq when we have 160,000 troops, but when we are at 155,000 they will decide it is in their interest to have a stable democracy allied to the United States next door? This is disgraceful nonsense.
Measured and thoughtful is how Warner sees himself, I imagine.
