Feingold's Folly

A quote to start (from HuffPo):

I said, "Off the record, your own view, would it help if we had a timeline to let the world know that we're not staying here forever?" And this is what he said, verbatim. He said, "Nothing would take the wind out of the sails of the insurgents more than having a timeline in place."

Okay, so we know where Feingold is coming from. The problem for Russ is that it is a flawed position.

Setting a deadline for withdrawal will not take the wind out of the sails of the insurgency. The only way it could take the wind out of their sails would be if they are only fighting because we are there. Our presence is only part of the equation. They want us gone not because we have boots on the ground in Iraq, but because those boots are currently standing between them and what they really want-power. If we announced a deadline for withdrawal, we might see a lull in activity, but that is only because they'll be gathering their resources for an assault on the current Iraqi government (and the Iraqi people), beginning the day after we leave. That is Feingold's folly-the belief that the United States is the center of the universe for Islamic terror, and by extension, the insurgency. We aren't. We're an obstacle they desperately want torn down. The center of their universe is power and glory. For some insurgents, that means an Islamic Empire. For those insurgents who benefited from the rule of Saddam, it means seizing control of the riches of Iraq again. Either way, it is the United States that stands between them and their goal.

The true national embarrassment of the Vietnam War is that we left the South Vietnamese dangling in the wind because we grew tired of it all. That is history that Feingold, in his misunderstanding of the Iraq insurgency, apparently wants us to repeat.