The Hindu Business Line : Wanted: Exit strategy

THE US President, Mr George W. Bush, and his bumbling neocon advisers are getting deeper and deeper into the Iraqi quicksand. Their biggest worry now is how to extricate themselves from the consequences of a blunder of their own making and seeking. Things looked grand both for themselves and for their sabre-rattling camp followers when, like a swash-buckling hero, Mr Bush led them to an unnecessary and unjustified war under false pretences. They let out whoops of joy when a country of the mere size of California with nothing to match the might of the US and no defences worth the name just crumbled under their jackboots. Mr Bush strutted on the world stage striking the pose of a conquering hero, mouthing Churchillian phrases. Even dissenters and sceptics in the Democratic Party were for the nonce muted.

Even then there were some disturbing pointers to the shape of things to come. There were no hallelujahs welcoming the US troops with festoons and flowers on the streets of Iraq; and within days, bombs began to be set off at various places taking a heavy toll of the troops of the so-called coalition of the willing, which was just another name for the US and at a far distance the UK. According to media computations, more US soldiers paid with their lives in Iraq after the occupation than before.

What the US is now confronting there is nothing short of rebellion spreading rapidly into far corners. A series of reverses have forced the US to paint itself into a corner with no space for manoeuvre either on the policy plane or in field operations or in the simple matter of day-to-day governance.

The typical trait of the US to shoot itself in its foot has never been more in evidence than when it mindlessly let units of its Army run amok in Abu Ghraib prison. Its choice of persons to manage Iraq in preparation for handing over power and sovereignty to the Iraqi people has also been singularly inept. At the present moment, Mr Bush and his cohorts would love nothing better than drop the hot brick, getting hotter by the day, and run.

But then, not having thought through the moves subsequent to the occupation with any degree of thoroughness, the US is clueless on how to plan its exit. The best course for it is to gracefully and quickly withdraw from Iraq, after inviting the UN to take its place. The US must give it a free hand and all the logistic support it can, promising never again to meddle in other people's affairs. The "Lone Ranger" mindset has done enough harm to the US and the world.

B. S. Raghavan