By Brigitte L. Nacos
I can’t help but address an issue that was raised by Washington Post's David Ignatius in his latest column, “The Big Question Democrats Are Ducking.” He is right to complain that most Democrats remain content to criticize the administration’s handling of Iraq but do not put forth suggestions for alternative policies. As Ignatius sees it, “This should be the Democrats' moment, if they can translate the national anger over Iraq into a coherent strategy for that country. But with few exceptions, the Democrats are mostly ducking the hard question of what to do next. They act as if all those America-hating terrorists will evaporate back into the sands of Anbar province if the Uniter States pulls out its troops. Alas, that is not the case. That is the problem with Iraq--it is not an easy mistake to fix.
Indeed, it is not an easy mistake to correct. But unless the White House and others in the administration stop fudging the obvious evidence attesting to the fiasco surrounding the Iraq war and deny the obvious, the debate is about the consequences of failed policies—not about correcting them. Moreover, as long as the Democrats are out of power, their best laid plans would not matter a bit in the highly partisan atmosphere of today’s Washington. It is the party in power that needs to address the “big question” about the future of our Iraq policy because only the Republican president and the Republican majority in both houses of Congress have the power to make such decisions.
Unless voters decide otherwise in November. And for that reason, yes, Democrats need to present us with alternatives.
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