Koch urges withdrawal from Iraq

I’m bailing out. I will no longer defend the policy of keeping U.S. troops in Iraq to assist the Iraqi central government in the ongoing civil war. While our men and women in the military suffer casualties daily, the Iraqi government refuses to take the major political steps required to end the civil war.

The U.S. government told the Iraqi government that it needed to achieve 18 goals. Our administration’s recent report to the U.S. Congress on how close the Iraqis have come to achieving those goals states that eight have been achieved, no progress has been made on eight others and two have had mixed results.


With regard to the most important goals, which include bringing the Sunni population into the Shia-dominated government by removing the bans against those (primarily Sunnis) who had served in the prior Baathist regime of Saddam Hussein, the grade was zero.

The Iraqi government similarly received a zero for failing to enact legislation that would equitably divide the country’s oil income among the Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite ethnic regions. Currently the Kurds and Shia share the oil revenues because the oil fields are located in the areas they control. The Sunnis control very few oil fields.

The American people no longer support our presence in Iraq. They made that clear in the 2006 congressional election when the majority in both houses of Congress shifted to the Democrats. My own position has been that we were better off fighting Islamic terrorism in Iraq than abandoning it and having that battle shift to American soil, which I am certain will happen when we leave Iraq. But my support for remaining in Iraq was conditioned on our allies joining us in Iraq and Afghanistan. Sadly, very few have done so. Instead, many of those same allies criticize us for staying in Iraq.

Only one major ally, Great Britain, has joined us with any serious contribution of troops. Even that in numbers -- 7,100 -- is paltry compared to our 140,000 troops, now increased to 160,000. Tony Blair was cast out as prime minister in part because he supported the U.S. in Iraq. Under the new prime minister, Laborite Gordon Brown, the British commitment is shrinking and the inevitability of a British withdrawal is clear.

The cost to date for the war in Iraq and Afghanistan is computed at about $400 billion, with $12 billion per month being spent in Iraq alone. The Bush administration has declined to leave Iraq, opting instead for what they call the “surge,” increasing our military forces to 160,000 by bringing in an additional 30,000 American troops.

In September, our new commanding general on the ground, Army Gen. David Petraeus, will report on whether the surge is working. But already the administration suggests that a September assessment may not cover enough time to determine success or failure. In any event, Petraeus has stated that political changes by the Iraqi government are necessary and that military progress by itself is not enough. The media recently reported that American soldiers on the ground fear they are being betrayed by and fired upon by members of the Iraqi army and police force.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki stated over the weekend, “We say with confidence that we are capable, God willing, of taking full responsibility for the security file if the international forces withdraw in any time they wish.”

In the meantime, the civil war escalates. This week alone on a single day more than 100 Iraqi civilians were killed and near 200 injured in two car bombings. Our soldiers cannot end the civil war for the Iraqis. Their soldiers have to do that. My voice is a modest one, so I would like to buttress my pro-withdrawal position with arguments put forth by the highly regarded New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman. In his July 11 column, he stated:

“But getting out has at least four advantages. First, no more Americans will be dying while refereeing a civil war. Second, the fear of an all-out civil war, as we do prepare to leave, may be the last best hope for getting the Iraqis to reach an eleventh-hour political agreement. Third, as the civil war in Iraq plays out, it could, painfully, force the realignment of communities on the ground that may create a more stable foundation upon which to build a federal settlement.

Fourth, we will restore our deterrence with Iran. Tehran will no longer be able to bleed us through its proxies in Iraq, and we will be much freer to hit Iran -- should we ever need to -- once we’re out. Moreover, Iran will by default inherit management of the mess in southern Iraq, which, in time, will be an enormous problem for Tehran.”

I agree with Friedman and repeat that I would support our troops remaining in Iraq if our allies were to join us. But they have made it clear they will not.

I propose that we do what the British did when they withdrew their troops from the historic Palestine Mandate they had assumed in 1922. They simply notified the United Nations that they would be gone by May 15, 1948, and they left it to the U.N. to decide what it would do with the territory. The U.N. voted to partition Palestine and create two states: one Jewish and one Arab. Palestinians and Arab nations rejected the U.N. solution and waged war against the new Jewish state of Israel. With the exception of Egypt and Jordan, they maintain a state of war with Israel 59 years later.

I believe we can be out of Iraq in a few months if we want to leave, departing by way of Turkey in the north and via Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Jordan in the south and west. We should leave to the Iraqi army the supplies and materials they need to protect themselves and we should arm the Kurds. Common decency requires that we take with us those Iraqi civilians who helped us and would be in danger when we left.

We then should prepare for a battle on American soil with the Islamic forces of terror. That battle could last at least 30 years. The terrorists must be defeated for if, God forbid, they defeat us they will put us to the sword. They refer to Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists and other Muslims they disagree with religiously as infidels.

Remember the words of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed after he killed Danny Pearl on Feb. 1, 2002: “I decapitated with my blessed right hand the head of the American Jew, Daniel Pearl, in the City of Karachi, Pakistan.” He is the same Khalid Sheikh Mohammed whom CNN referred to as “the suspected mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.” He is now in American custody.

Remember, they have threatened to kill Pope Benedict XVI.

Remember also how we refused to take seriously the threats Adolf Hitler made in his book “Mein Kampf.” There were only 80 million Germans at the start of World War II. There are now 1.4 billion Muslims. While only a minority of Muslims subscribe to the Wahabist fundamentalist belief popular in Saudi Arabia that infidels must be killed, that minority of jihadists and their supporters still number in the tens of millions and is growing. Wake up, America.

Ed Koch, former mayor of the city of New York, is currently a partner at Bryan Cave LLP.