WASHINGTON Respected Republicans such as Dick Lugar (R-IN), George Voinovich (R-OH), Olympia Snowe (R-WA) and Pete Domenici (R-NM), are now joining the chorus of democrats in calling for a troop withdrawal from Iraq. As the Iraq War appears to enter its endgame, America's options on how to end the Iraq War are growing limited. Unfortunately, politicians and pundits alike now talk of "ending" the war, no longer of "winning" the war. So what options does America have, and how plausible are they?

America can withdraw all troops from Iraq immediately, as suggested by the far-left wing of the Democratic party. All analysts, regardless of party affiliation, are nearly unanimous in believing that a precipitous withdrawal of this sort would be a disaster militarily and politically. The best that can happen from such a solution is that America enters a new period of splendid isolation, while the situation in Iraq deteriorates rapidly. There is an accurate model for what will happen in Iraq -in 1998, sectarian and ethnic tension in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, formerly Zaire, spiraled out of control. Without an adequate peacekeeping effort, regional powers such as Angola, Namibia, Chad, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Zimbabwe were drawn into the conflict, creating what was known as Africa's Great War. Nearly 4 million died. Geopolitically, a precipitous withdrawal would signal that America has given up, and no longer has military authority as a world power. A precipitous withdrawal would send our enemies one very clear message; that America is weak, that America can be beaten, and that America is being beaten. Needless to say, this strategy is not sound militarily, and it does not have enough political support to be adopted as the policy of the U.S. government.

The strategy that is emerging as the consensus view in the United States is that of a gradual withdrawal of troops with a clear deadline. There are three reasons that Americans can believe in this strategy. The first is that this strategy will in fact cause the Iraqi government to step up to the late and take over responsibility. The second is that the war is lost, and troops need to be withdrawn in a sensible manner. The third, and most worrying, reason is that the American people are simply tired of the war. Let us examine each of these motivations in turn.

There is no reason to believe that a gradual withdrawal of U.S. troops will somehow catalyst the Iraqi government to make adequate progress

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