Iraq: No Exit?
by Robert Dreyfuss

Tom Hayden, the longtime activist and former state senator in California, has been circulating a detailed plan, which he encapsulated for the Los Angeles Times last month. His plan has three basic steps: first, the United States should announce that it has no plans for US bases in Iraq and announce a goal of rapid US withdrawal from Iraq. Second, the United States should ask the United Nations to take the lead in overseeing disengagement and reconstruction. And third, President Bush should appoint a peace envoy for the region who could open peace talks with the groups in Iraq opposed to the US occupation, including the resistance.

Erik Leaver of the Institute for Policy Studies, writing in Yes! magazine this week , provides a somewhat more detailed plan: end US offensive operations, pass a congressional resolution affirming US commitment to a withdrawal that clarifies that the United States has no interest in controlling Iraq oil nor stabling permanent bases, make reparations, hand over the reconstruction of Iraq to Iraqis, and start talks with the resistance to find a political-diplomatic solution to the violence.

An even more detailed roadmap is Gareth Porter's essay in the most recent issue of Middle East Policy . In "The Third Option in Iraq: A Responsible Exit Strategy," Porter, a scholar and author, present a carefully reasoned argument for including the Sunnis in the political process, negotiating with the insurgents, beginning what he calls a "rolling mutual disengagement" in cities and provinces and halting the death spiral of decentralization. Earlier plans have been put forth by other organizations, including the Project on Defense Alternatives in Boston.


Full story here.