Good politics, good timing, bad ethics

I don’t believe in conspiracy theory, but I do believe in well-timed political maneuvering. The pull-out agreement that Rice and Zebari announced on Friday smacks of this kind of political positioning, devoid of any ethical or moral responsibility to the country, troops, citizens and self. The timing of the announcement a few days before the DNC in Denver takes the wind out of the Obama sails, deflating any opportunity that could be made for ending the war in Iraq and bringing the troops home soon.

One could make the argument that these things take time to negotiate, that the Iraqis are ready to stand on their own without the United States, that the Iraqi government has developed and the timing of the announcement was merely coincidental. One would not want to assert that the President of the United States is playing political games with the lives of the armed forces, their families and the citizens of another sovereign nation.

But, the attitudes of the administration, the timing of the events that are about to unfold in the coming months with the election and the earnestness Mr. Bush has with establishing a legacy tends to belie the honesty and coincidental nature of the event.

Some would say that 2011 is just no do-able, it is too soon and the task too complicated. But, for those who attempt to make an argument that Mr. Bush and Mr. McCain wish to stay in Iraq for the “next 100 years,” they will now be pooh-poohed as alarmists, making a case for a war that has now effectively ended.

The political skill is admirable. The ethics are reprehensible.