Thursday, April 08, 2004

Reason from the right

"This is the wrong war, at the wrong place, against the wrong enemy. And America will pay a price. Those of us who are Republicans can only regret that the GOP — and its foreign policy — have been hijacked by a crew of neoconservatives who hold hegemonic and imperial ambitions for the United States. Their crusading zeal and reckless indifference to the prudent principles of foreign-policy realism have led the United States into a morass from which it will be difficult for us to extricate ourselves."

--Christopher Layne, formerly a visiting fellow at the libertarian Cato Institute, in the L.A. Weekly.

Whoops, he said that over a year ago!

This is what he says today, in a column published down under (anti-war conservatives have to go far from the U.S., it appears, to get their voice heard):

"The time has come for the US to cut its losses and disengage from Iraq as quickly as it can. Staying on will not make things better. The resistance to the US-led occupation will grow and Iraq will become a magnet for Islamic fighters who want to take on the US.

If the US withdraws, will there be costs? Of course there will. Iraq could fracture, the Middle East – believe it or not – could become less stable than it is presently and some might question US resolve. The truth is, however, that sooner or later the US is going to have to pay these costs.

Once resistance to their rule reaches a threshold, colonial powers don't win wars of national resistance. If that threshold hasn't quite been reached in Iraq during the past few days, it soon will be."


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