APRES ELECTION, LES DELUGE

Robert Kuttner sends a little warning Bush's way -- Exit Iraq:

President Bush should enjoy his victory celebration while he can. He will soon face the most determined antiwar movement since the 1960s.
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The Iraq occupation is one of the worst American blunders ever, as countless experienced diplomats and former intelligence officials keep pointing out.

There is no political support in either party to put in the number of troops necessary to secure the place. We can't even seal Iraq's borders, let alone hunt down insurgents. Our very presence is a recruiting poster for every kind of anti-American militant.

Prominent critics of the war are counseling an early withdrawal. The Cato Institute, a prominent conservative and libertarian think tank, advocates a U.S. pullout.

Hawks insist that America, having made an epic blunder, must nonetheless stay the course, lest Bush's mistaken description of Iraq as a center of world terrorism mutate into a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The hawks are right about the risks, but doves are right that the United States needs to exit.