Paul Krugman:The Arithmetic of Failure

Iraq is a lost cause. It’s just a matter of arithmetic: given the violence of the environment, with ethnic groups and rival militias at each other’s throats, American forces there are large enough to suffer terrible losses, but far too small to stabilize the country.

We’re so undermanned that we’re even losing our ability to influence events: earlier this week, Prime Minister Nuri Kamal al-Maliki brusquely rejected American efforts to set a timetable for reining in the militias.

Afghanistan, on the other hand, is a war we haven’t yet lost, and it’s just possible that a new commitment of forces there might turn things around.

The moral is clear — we need to get out of Iraq, not because we want to cut and run, but because our continuing presence is doing nothing but wasting American lives. And if we do free up our forces (and those of our British allies), we might still be able to save Afghanistan.

http://select.nytimes.com/2006/10/27/opinion/27krugman.html

Mr. Krgugman is right on! :-)

Damn the NYT!

articles a few days later? There is a spot on the web, no?

It always gives more than the 4 paragraph rule DU uses, anyway.

http://economistsview.typepad.com/economistsview/2006/10/paul_krugman_th_3.html

There's also what appears to be a complete copy at http://freedemocracy.blogspot.com/2006/10/paul-krugman-arithmetic-of-failure.html . It's always worth using the Google blog search to look for copies.

by Greg Palast


Imagine this: You're tied to a stake and savages are about to light the logs under your feet.

So, class, what do you do?

Cut and run!

How about this one? Evil-doers have tied you to the railroad tracks and the Teheran Express is bearing down on you. If you have any brains at all, whatcha gonna do?

Cut and run!

President George Bush has been accusing Democrats of having a reasonable, coherent Iraq policy: getting out alive. "Cut and run" for short.

Of course, most Democrats have denied having a "clear-cut" program on Iraq, preferring, "setting a firm date for phased withdrawal." We don't know what that date is, but if it's anything later than Thursday, the policy is a fudge. Sorry, but "gnaw and wiggle" won't do. Cut and run gets the job done. Gets you the heck out of harm's way. When that runaway truck is careening down the jogging track, you don't 'Stay the Course.'

Try it yourself: Cut and run can be fun!

If pirates tie a boulder to your neck, what should you do, kids?

Cut and run!

Or, let's say you've got the wires to Dick Cheney's pacemaker in your hand. What should you do? (No, no, no! Be kind.) Speaking of cut and run- there's still corporations getting their cut in Iraq. Read the guest column by Antonia Juhasz titled "Are U.S. Corporations Going to 'Win' the War in Iraq" at www.gregpalast.com

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Greg Palast is the author of the recently-released New York Times bestseller, "ARMED MADHOUSE: Who's Afraid of Osama Wolf?, China Floats Bush Sinks, the Scheme to Steal '08, No Child's Behind Left and other Dispatches from the Front Lines of the Class War." Go to http://www.GregPalast.com.

he talks like that, too. A very funny, snarky guy to listen to.

The man's a riot!