12-05-06, 9:08 am

There is a chance the United States can leave Iraq soon with some kind of dignity. I know, I know, it sounds crazy, there is no way the Americans can leave the bloodied broken mess of a country with any kind of dignity or honor, only shame. But they can at least do it on their own terms, before being forced out by the insurgency, the Iraqi government, or both.

The chance that George W. Bush has now is to leave Iraq and blame the move on pressure from the Democrats that now control Congress. He can still hold his head high that he kept up a disastrous, murderous war going for the past four years as it spiraled ever deeper into the abyss. Bush seems to have a compulsion, a desire even, to keep this war going in the face of absolute defeat. Iraq is not a stable democracy, nor an open society with a Starbuck’s on every corner. Put simply, it is not America Jr., which seemed to be the goal when Saddam Hussein was toppled. But that is okay, people have largely forgotten about all of the failed goals and motivations for the war, cough, weapons of mass destruction, cough.

So George, I ask you, if you are reading this, which I am sure you are not, you have a way out of Iraq, one where you still look like you support something that only thirty percent of your population now believes in. Blame it on Nancy Pelosi, blame it on Carl Levin, blame it on the Democrats. Let them go along and pass legislation for a phased withdrawal. You can fight it all the way, as I’m sure you will, but in the end cave a bit and get some kind of deal that makes you look good. Because now that Rummy is gone, you and your pal Dick are kind of on an island. You’ve been abandoned by a large number of your neo-conservative allies that planned and backed this war. You’ve been abandoned by some on the religious right, and most independent voters in the country, as shown in the Midterm elections. Everyone is turning on your policies George, but if you are determined to uphold it I can understand, you need to be a man and not admit you made a mistake. Bravado, that’s what keeping the Untied States in Iraq.

It might not be the optimal way, and hell, we all would have loved to see a stable country emerged after you bombed it back to the Stone Age for apparently no reason as we found out in the aftermath. Cough, no weapons of mass destruction, cough. But it is a way, probably the only way, without leaving it for Hillary, Barack Obama or even John McCain to clean up.

This is your mess George, you wanted this fight, you picked this fight, and now that you’ve got a bloody nose, it’s time to run home and cry to Mommy (and Daddy I suppose.), get it patched up and think twice before you start another scrap with someone else.

But, seeing the way to operate, you won’t take any road out of Iraq, you will leave your mess for someone else to clean up, as you did with your failed oil companies in the past. It is a shame that you will be viewed as likely one of the worst presidents in the history of the United States, especially after 9/11. There was so much the US could have done in the aftermath of that day to change the world for the better, remove regimes that actually are a threat to their respective regions, cough, Iran, North Korea, cough, instead of one that was feeble after the first Gulf War but just happened to have the second largest reserves of crude oil in the world.

We have heard all throughout the Iraq PR campaign that history will judge the war masters under a different light, and they will be vindicated. Have the planners of the Vietnam War been vindicated by history, not a chance, and neither will the neo-cons that planned and advocated this war. History will judge you Mr. Bush, but it will be much more harshly than you can imagine.

-- Shane Burns lives in New Westminster, B.C., Canada.