In today’s Washington Post, Major General William Webmaster had a few words to say about setting a date to leave Iraq:
A top American commander in Iraq on Wednesday denounced calls by some U.S. senators and others for a deadline on withdrawal from Iraq, calling that “a recipe for disaster” for the 2 -year-old war.
“Setting a date would mean that the 221 soldiers I’ve lost this year, that their lives will have been lost in vain,” said Maj. Gen. William Webster, whose 3rd Infantry Division is responsible for security in three-fourths of Iraq’s capital.
Do you want to see the deed through to the end? Or do you want to set a date to come home?
You can’t have both.
The right thing to do is to see this through to the end – a free Iraq that is able to protect itself both internally and externally from those that would wish a democratic government ill.
That might be three months from now, it could be three years from now, it may be ten years from now.
Setting an arbitrary date is ignorant, stupid, ill-conceived, and certainly doesn’t support the troops.
Want to have a reason for over two thousand men and women to have died in vain? Set a date to go home before the battle is won.