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The very idea that we (Americans) are debating the "answer" for Iraq is both preposterous and at the root of the disastrous problems in that benighted country. "We" don't have the answer anymore than "we" had the right to invade their country without provocation. Had there not been shock and awe based on mushroom clouds and lies, the country would not be in the shape it is now. WE did this by stupidity, arrogance and an imperialist sense of manifest destiny to control the world's resources (read:oil).

The real issue to my mind is not what we Americans think the answer is; there is no answer that we can impose or(I think) even facilitate at this point in the tragedy. Rather we should be debating the question of what, given our own murderous instigation of this horror, is our moral responsibility to the Iraqi people to help bring an end to a blood letting we can't stop.

And I think it's simply this: stop the killing. WE, with all of our arms and troops and firepower have it in our power to simply stop. We don't have to leave - not yet - but simply withdraw into our barracks and stay there, using violence only if directly attacked.

Non-violence - as Ghandi, Dr. King and Nelson Mandela have proven - is contagious. Perhaps with us not out there killing, the urge to kill will ameliorate among the extremists of all sides. We could, for once, lead by moral example, not by the imposition of death. Naive, you say? Who gives a fecality? War and violence and aggression haven't worked, have they? Why not try thinking outside the box? Why not start with the idea that human life is holy and only to be spent or taken under the most extreme of circumstances and not at Washington's whim.

We can also acknowledge the dangerous reality of withdrawal (to us and to the Iraqis) by establishing and carrying out a phased withdrawal tied to real benchmarks, including at first and primarily, an agreement by the warring factions to also listen to the peaceful exhortations of the Q'uran and lay down arms.

Then the diplomatic work can begin. We have to understand that the civil solution for Iraq is not an American problem, nor soluble by Americans, most of whom have no clue about the religious and historical issues that separate Shi'a from Sunni. We need to show some humility here, folks; and we can start by encouraging our friends the Saudis to convene an all-Arab council, an Islamic council, to hash out the issues, differences and solutions in Iraq.

If there is an answer, it will come from the peoples and the religious principles that dominate that part of the world, not from fools like William Kristol, George Bush, Cheney and Fox News.

So swallow hard, King George, and understand that Iraq is fixable - by the Saudis, the Jordanians, Syria, Iran, the Kurds and the Turks; and most of all by the Iraqis themselves. And by the Iraqis themselves.

The Manifest Destiny of the United States of America died in the sands of Iraq. So let's find another, more morally defensible mission, and become a force for peace and national humility in the world. Make the Iraq debacle the last war of the Twentieth Century, not the first war of the Twenty First.

Learn more about this author, Eamonn.
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