Wise withdrawal

In an untraditional society, there is no wisdom. Wisdom is only the best choice made according to custom. However, this doesn't mean all decisions made according to customary practice are wise. There's still the matter of discretion. Custom can run down a blind alley unless there is considered judgment applied to its dictates.

Political policy-making suffers most when a blind rush to judgment results from ill-applied customary manners of thinking, like going to war too easily. Haste can make waste. Such is what we have now in Iraq. The haste with which we got into this war can now be set against the caution we must take in trying to get out, so that we won't compound the many mistakes we've already made in entering and executing it.

A precipitous withdrawal would dash any chance we have of leaving behind any stability in this country at all. A posture that we intend not to leave at all will even further incite resistance and emboldened attacks on us and the Iraqi military and police forces.

Now we must make a coldly calculated "game plan" to get out, and vary it according to contingencies as they develop. But we must withdraw for the sake of our country, as well as theirs. This is neither wise nor unwise; it's simply necessary. Unless we do this we will finally be forced out after still further losses and and at much greater cost than we have incurred so far. And it will be deja vu (Vietnam) all over again.

Gary J. Whitesell

213 W. 21st