Iraq: Get Out Now

We have to get out.

We have to get out before the tide turns again, before Karl Rove gets his groove, before a Tonkin incident triggers a new invasion, before the tactical nuke is fully deployable, before the valley of the Tigris and Euphrates, the cradle of civilization, is filled with Iraqi and American blood.

We have to get out before another half million lives are lost and the ghost of Vietnam rises from the sands of ancient Mesopotamia.

We have to get out before the cry of mourning becomes a cry of vengeance that overwhelms and buries wisdom and reason.

We have to get out before a terrorist incident, real or invented, uncovers once again the dark side of the American character.

We have to get out before it is too late to negotiate a compromise, before the passions are so inflamed that no one talks and no one listens.

We have to get out before the next Iraqi strongman rises from the ranks to impose order with the iron hand of despotism and oppression.

We have to get out before nuclear technologies yield nuclear weapons that place the human species on the edge of extinction.

We have to get out before a new American president plays the patriot card and persuades the masses that “victory at any cost” is the national destiny.

We have to get out before Afghanistan implodes and a new Osama bin Laden is hailed as a liberator and a prophet.

We have to get out.

Now.