No "course" to stay

As WallDon points out today ("Stay the course"), General Abizaid does not seem to have any fresh ideas: we simply must not pull out.

But in the UK's Guardian recently, Simon Jenkins argues ("Why stop the Great Satan?"-- looking from Iran's perspective) that there is simply no point to American or British military presence there:

As we approach the beginning of the end in Iraq there will be much throat-clearing and breast-beating before reality replaces denial. For the moment, denial still rules. In America last week I was shocked at how unaware even anti-war Americans are (like many Britons) of the depth of the predicament in Iraq. They compare it with Vietnam or the Balkans - but it is not the same. It is total anarchy. All sentences beginning, "What we should now do in Iraq ..." are devoid of meaning. We are in no position to do anything. We have no potency; that is the definition of anarchy.

And a bit later:

To talk of a collapse into civil war if "we leave" Iraq is to completely misread the chaos into which that country has descended under our rule. It implies a model of order wholly absent on the ground. Foreign soldiers can stay in their bases, but they will no more "prevent civil war" than they can "import democracy". They are relevant only as target practice for insurgents and recruiting sergeants for al-Qaida. The occupation of Iraq has passed from brutality to mere idiocy.

"From brutality to mere idiocy": that's us, folks (at home & abroad). Jenkins might be wrong, who knows? But who knows? Who is even asking? It is denial and falsehood that must be exorcised from the political system and policymaking (at home & abroad), before we can ascend back to mere brutality (such a goal).

Jenkins' parting shot:

Bush and Blair are men in a hurry, and such men lose wars. . . . If London and Washington really want help in this part of the world they must start from diplomatic ground zero. They will have to stop the holier-than-thou name-calling and the pretence that they hold any cards. They will have to realise that this war has lost them all leverage in the region. They can insult and sanction and threaten. But there is nothing left for them to "do" but leave. They are no longer the subject of that mighty verb, only its painful object.

There may be no course to stay. The best (and only) course may be to leave.