"candidates' views on Iraq range from withdrawal to partitioning -- and then there's McCain"

[ProSense]

Potential presidential candidates' views on Iraq range from withdrawal to partitioning -- and then there's McCain

Posted 11/22/2006 1:32 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AP) — As violence grips Iraq, some White House hopefuls want U.S. troops to start coming home now, or at least soon. Others say the United States must win at all costs. One has called for Iraq to be carved up along ethnic lines.

And then there's Sen. John McCain.

"I believe victory is still attainable," the Arizona Republican says. "But without additional combat forces we will not win this war."

In carefully scripted language, McCain then adds: If the country does not have the will to do what it takes to win in Iraq — send in more forces — then U.S. troops should not be made to serve more tours of duty.

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Could it be that the admin is setting the stage for McCain:

Tom Hayden
11.21.2006

U.S. Retreat from Iraq? The Secret Story

Special to the Huffington Post

According to credible Iraqi sources in London and Amman, a secret story of America's diplomatic exit strategy from Iraq is rapidly unfolding. The key events include:

First, James Baker told one of Saddam Hussein's lawyers that Tariq Aziz, former deputy prime minister, would be released from detention by the end of this year, in hope that he will negotiate with the US on behalf of the Baath Party leadership.

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The Backstory

Underlying these developments are three American concerns: first, the deepening quagmire and sectarian strife on the battlefield; second, the mid-year American elections in which voters repudiated the war; and third, the strategic concern that the new Iraq has slipped into the orbit of Iran. It remains to be seen if Iran will exercise influence on its Shiite allies in Iraq (the Grand Ayatollah Sistani was born in Iraq, and the main Shiite bloc was created in Iran by Iraqi exiles). But that is the direction being taken by Baker's Iraq Study Group and former CIA director John Deutch in a New York Times op-ed. The principal US track, in addition to a declared withdrawal plan, should be to work towards a hands-off policy by Iran, at least for an interval, according to Deutch.

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It must be emphasized that there is no reason to believe that these US gestures are anything more than probes, in the historic spirit of divide-and-conquer, before escalating the Iraq war in a Baghdad offensive. Denial plausibility - aka Machiavellian secrecy - remains American security policy, for understandable if undemocratic reasons.

Yet Americans who voted in the November election because of a deep belief that a change of government in Washington might end the war have a right to know that their votes counted. The US has not abandoned its entire strategy in Iraq, but is offering significant concessions without its own citizens knowing.