What the heck does it mean to "stay the course"?
As President Bush returns home from the middle east, the national news media, rabid and senile watchdogs that they are, have again latched onto the question of when the U.S. military will pull out of Iraq. One side insists that we must produce a "timetable" with deadlines for pulling out. The other side insists we must "stay the course". As usual they're both wrong.
It is wrong to set a timetable for pulling out. Setting a date really just tells the Iraqi people "Hey, this is when we're going to abandon you." If the job's not done by the date, you're faced with slipping the date (bad for PR) the choice of not finishing the job (bad for the people).
But it is even worse to hide behind the current "stay the course" rationale. As far as I can tell, it means that we will continue doing what we're doing until we think we're done. But 'done' is subjective, and depends on whom you ask. Will we ever be 'done' in the eyes of those in power? How can you tell? I think one of the big reasons people are screaming about a timetable is that they want something more objective than "When Bush says we're done."
The correct solution is to set specific, achievable, measurable criteria. Bush needs to spell out in detail what must be accomplished before the U.S. military is finished in Iraq, and then pledge to pull out when that is accomplished. Then, instead of whining about timetables or staying the course, pundits can look at a checklist, and then get back to debating how strictly the federal government should regulate Janet Jackson's wardrobe.
Of course, it's much more politically attractive for both sides to be seen flinging mud and making heroic yet stupid stands on key issues, so there probably won't be anybody in the District of Columbia taking my suggestion seriously. I expect we'll continue to stay the course with no specific goals, accomplishing little more than wasting American money and American lives, and we'll have an implicit timetable for a unilateral pullout on 15 January, 2009, the day Bush leaves office.