Should We Stay or Should We Go?
The fucking New York Times. "Why not let the Iraqis themselves decide? Ask Iraqi voters in a referendum six weeks after the national elections if they think foreign soldiers should withdraw immediately. Let the Iraqis debate what the absence of American forces will mean for their families and nation. Tell them we'll hold the referendum every nine months until they vote us out or we determine it's time to leave."

Are they being ironic or is this a pop-up timer in the NYT to show that we don't need to insert a fork because they are already done? Should I be taking this as the opinion of three shmoes or should my esteem for NYT bottom out because of this? Sorry, I should have known better after Judith Miller and everything, but you know, nostalgia.

What if we had allowed the Iraqi people a referendum before the war on whether we should invade? Oh wait, we don't have that authority. The UN Security Council does.

Even then, how naive and/or out-of-touch do you have to be to think that any significant minority of Iraqis would want US troops to remain? How many polls have they neglected to read to think that the percent wanting us to leave right now is not in the upper 90s??? This is like a referendum by Palestinians to see if they'd prefer Israeli troops to maintain their occupation, or whether enough of them might feel that it's safe enough for Israel to pull out. Suggesting a referendum shows that you're deep inside the bubble in Washington, and you wouldn't know the feelings on the "Arab Street" if it was written in front of you in a thousand newspapers daily.

Should NYT Op-Ed pieces be taken seriously or are they funnier than Leno?