With debate raging about what the US should do in Iraq, one thing is clear: nobody has a full solution to the horror that the US has unleashed. Yet, this week's release of the Iraq Study Group's (ISG) report offers some hope-not because the ISG is calling to bring home the troops quickly (they're not) or because their recommendations will yield justice for Iraqis (they won't). On balance, the ISG's conclusions don't depart much from plans emerging from the White House these days. The value of the ISG report is that it makes it official: Bush's Iraq policy is a failure. That may not sound like much given the magnitude of the crisis, but sometimes a formal confirmation of the obvious is a turning point-especially when it comes from the heart of the Washington policy establishment. We can be hopeful that the ISG report will be the beginning of the end of the war.
Of course, hope is not the same as optimism: the end of the war could still be in the distant future, in part because the ISG calls for rearranging US troops rather than removing them. But there are other elements of the report that we can endorse and build on, like the call for diplomacy with Iran and Syria. As we sift through the many proposals and counter-proposals being put forward about what to do in Iraq, we should evaluate them not only for what they say, but also for what they leave out. The best policy options will likely dwell in those silences, not in the "findings" of the ISG's recycled cold warriors, or the generals, TV pundits, or presidential hopefuls.
Whatever steps the Bush Administration takes next, it's crucial that they embody principles that we wish to see driving our foreign policy. If we can reassert those principles-even in the absence of an ideal solution-we have a hope of eventually creating a more peaceful world.
Here are four principles that any new US policies should reflect, along with a few examples of what those principles might look like in practice.
Found on Counterpunch.org
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