GETTING IT TOGETHER IN IRAQ?

Yesterday, one shoe hit the floor. From the New York Times:

Bush, in a Shift, Accepts Concept of Iraq Timeline

President Bush agreed to “a general time horizon” for withdrawing American troops in Iraq, the White House announced Friday, in a concession that reflected both progress in stabilizing Iraq and the depth of political opposition to an open-ended military presence in Iraq and at home.

Mr. Bush, who has long derided timetables for troop withdrawals as dangerous, agreed to at least a notional one as part of the administration’s efforts to negotiate the terms for an American military presence in Iraq after a United Nations mandate expires at the end of the year.

And

The administration dropped a promise in that initial agreement to provide long-term security for Iraq, something that would require a treaty and Congressional approval. It has also backed off other demands for sweeping powers to continue military operations there indefinitely.

More here.

And now today, the other shoe hits the floor. From the AP via the Huffington Post courtesy of AlterNet:

Iraqi Sunnis End Boycott And Rejoin Government

Iraq's largest Sunni Arab political bloc ended a nearly yearlong boycott of the Shiite-led government Saturday in another step toward healing the sectarian rifts that once brought almost daily bloodshed.

The National Accordance Front agreed to return after parliament approved six Sunni officials to fill vacant seats in the Cabinet.

But the gesture had wider implications _ seen as a significant step toward political reconciliation and efforts to cement security cooperation between Shiite-led forces and armed Sunni groups that rose up against al-Qaida in Iraq.

Click here for the rest.

Of course, I'll be wildly surprised if we actually, you know, pull out of Iraq ever, but this confluence of events within a twenty four hour stretch well illustrates a point that the left has been making for quite a while now.

War supporters have been asserting that if the US exits Iraq, intense sectarian bloodshed is sure to follow, that the American troop presence is the only thing keeping the desert nation from descending into all-out chaos--such an argument has been very appealing to moderates, who are appalled by the loss of life and chaos happening now in Iraq, but are frightened that things could get much worse if we leave. The left, on the other hand, has been asserting that the US troop presence has actually created the conditions allowing the sectarian strife to continue. That is, by keeping this artificial, US created Iraqi government propped up, the actual politics of Iraq have been held in stasis; our presence has kept the cards from falling where they ought to, or where they would if they could if the Iraqis were left to their own devices.

So now we have Bush agreeing to discussion of a timetable for withdrawal, almost immediately followed by an end to the Sunni boycott of the Iraqi government. Now I'm not saying that Bush's remarks actually caused this break of impasse, but it sure does look like it. That is, it really does seem that Iraqi sight of an American exit on the horizon is causing the political ball to start rolling in a more stable direction.

Like I said, I'll be really surprised if we actually get out, under either McCain or Obama, but these two events do nothing but illustrate that leaving Iraq really is the right thing to do.

I guess we'll see how it all plays out.

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