America's Options In Iraq Seem Dire Indeed

Americans are growing tired of the Iraq War. Many think it is time to bring our troops home, that American soldiers should no longer be the victims of roadside bombs and deadly battles with terrorists in a chaotic, ungoverned land.

But will our exit from a country descending into anarchy spark a violent aftermath that will make the American withdrawal from Vietnam War look tame? That was the question put to several top journalists covering the war Monday.

Their answer was an unequivocal yes. The panel discussion at Stanford University – with Dexter Filkins of The New York Times, Anne Garrels of NPR and George Packer of The New Yorker - should give pause to anyone who believes in a simple solution to the Iraq debacle. None exists, and turning Iraq into a successful democratic state is far more hope than reality.

Instead, it is time for America to have a grown-up debate about a mess it helped create. It may be time to turn to Arab states and world community for help as a last best alternative. The consequence of cutting and running could be a national-security nightmare the likes of which the United States has not seen since the height of the Cold War.

For 2 ½ years, America has tried to build a democracy in Iraq and by doing so undermine the insurgency. This has not happened, says Filkins. Now “the country is starting to come apart,” he says. “Villages are being ethnically cleansed.

If tomorrow, U.S. forces were to pull out, the country would probably see a bloodbath like never before, with Iran and Turkey taking opportunistic advantage of the instability, says Filkins. Terrorists from around the world would consider the carnage an open invitation to join in.

“We can’t stay here any longer, but we can’t leave,” Filkins says. “I don’t know what the answer is.”

The quagmire in Iraq is neither choice is good, agrees Packer. Americans need to think through the consequences of leaving Iraq.

“It is an utter nightmare to be living in Baghdad right now,” says Packer. “If you leave, it will be far worse.”

Filkins say he goes out of the Green Zone, where American soldiers provide security, everyday to talk to individual Iraqis. Staying out of danger is hard. Colleagues are kidnapped, blindfolded and shot at, he says.

As of late 2003, a reporter could still drive around Iraq, though the country was changing quickly, says Filkins. By April 2004, freedom of movement was gone.

The New York Times staff now lives in a two-house complex with barbed wire, machine-gun carrying guards and search lights. When a cement truck packed with TNT ran into the lobby of a nearby hotel, the explosion blew out 309 window panes in the two houses and tossed the radiator of a car into one of them.

“We are hunted, and we know we’re being hunted,” says Garrels. NPR has two armored cars at $75,000 a piece, she says, and it is running out of correspondents who want to cover the war.

Americans have lost faith in what the White House tells them about the war, says Packer. Now they have no easy choice how to proceed.