So, it looks like The O-Bomb is going to take the Democrat leadership, and run against McCain. This I find interesting, because Barack is the only candidate running who has more or less outright stated that when he gets into office, he's pulling the troops out.

While I find the notion appealing, I see that Obama has never actually proposed a plan for a pullout, and I'm reminded of two things. The first is an exchange between John F. Kennedy and Lester B. Pearson regarding vietnam, where JFK asked Lester for his advice:

Lester: "Get out."

JFK: "That's a stupid answer. Everyone knows that. The question is: how do we get out?"

Kennedy was smart enough to know he had to have some kind of plan in place before he could get out of Vietnam, or he'd condemn a lot of Vietnamese to death. Of course, he was assassinated before he really had a chance to develop said plan, and his predecessors were each too stupid to recognize that Vietnam was a lost cause until it reached a breaking point (and there was no time to develop a real plan).

Which brings me to the second thing I'm reminded of:

When the withdrawl did happen, the U.S. presence evaporated so quickly as to engender tremendous catastrophe all across the country. Saigon fell flat on it's face, hundreds of thousands of ARVN supporters and officers were jailed in concentration camps, Cambodia was invaded and the Khmer Rouge genocide ensued.

While I don't think Obama will take the presidential seat against McCain anyway (and I think McCain himself is being foolish about 'victory' in Iraq), I'm a little chilled by the fact that Barack seems to think just having the troops jump out of Iraq will fix the problem. Everyone who participated in the faux election would almost assuredly be killed, as well as anyone participating in certain Western ideals (like women excercizing equal rights) and any government officials from the puppet government left behind.

Of course, I am a supporter of the notion that the U.S. should militarily vacate, and sooner rather than later (at best, they're only stemming a tide) - which naturally lead me to ask myself, "So, how could it be done?"

This is basically just 'armchair intellectualism' if you will, but I thought of two rough ideas while I was at work. What do you guys think? Do you think the U.S. should pull-out? Do you have your own ideas for how they could do it?

Here's mine:

Pull everybody out

This would be my quick and dirty idea. Just pack-up and go, like they normally would - but bring enough aircraft and hueys along to take all the Iraqi pro-democrats with them. Evacuate that damn tract of desert, and let the insurgents have it if they want the worthless real-estate so bad.

There are, of course, a number of problems with this one - the first being, what the Hell are we going to do with all those people (...Well, I know where all the gorgeous young arab  women can come, at least. )? Presumably, especially know that we're entering something of an economic slump, we can't support all that extra influx over here.

There's also the problem of leaving Al-Queda to simply build a pirate state of sorts where Iraq used to be. Perhaps we could negotiate around them to access the oil, perhaps we couldn't - and in either case, they'd do nothing but continue stirring-up shitstorms everywhere they could.

Another one would be infiltration. Perhaps not a lot, but a few extremists would no doubt get flown over with the refugees - and then we get the wonderful possibility of aircraft being flown into buildings again or bombs being set-off (or both).

Why use tanks and soldiers when we've got Ronald McDonald and Lindsay Lohan?

Actually, this plan I don't think is a bad one at all.

The U.S. is not going to win a fight against Islamic extremists, in my opinion, fighting on the latters own terms. Gun to gun, the best they can do is kill them all to the last man - and by the time they've done that, the cost in terms of resources, lives and just plain burning-out what was once a country will likely outweigh the benefits.

So why the fuck are they doing it that way? The Bush administration is fighting stupidly. Culture is an extremely powerful weapon at their disposal. They apparently want to show the Iraqis what democracy and fee trade is all about, yet haven't shown them much of anything beyond better guns and bigger tanks.

Drop-in entreprenuers (real ones, not just oil execs from a select few companies) and let them get their hands dirty. Set-up rows of bars, strip clubs and nightclubs. Set-up fast food chains. Clothing chains. Electronic stores. Get the ball rolling on an entertainment industry. It's a Goddamned untapped market - tap the shit out of it!

Setting-up schools is no good if they just get blown-up by car bombs a few days later or staff can't be found because they're too afraid to work in one. If people are so distracted, shitfaced and entangled in each other's orifices that they can hardly tell their asses from their elbows, much less find time to join a Jihad, disenchantment should start to really take root with the whole 'martyr' thing.

Moreover, good times and vanity are infectious. They're like pink and fluffy cancers from Hell, and sooner of later, some of the hardcore terrorist cells would have some of their membership catch the bug. Buy-in can't be forced at gunpoint - but martyrs would soon realize it sure can be washed over you with the right selling technique and impulses. In my opinion, that's all it would take.

Infighting in the cells themselves would break-out, and the organizations would pull themselves apart and dissolve into organized crime within the new culture springing-up around them. Not all sunshine and rainbows, obviously - but a vast improvement over the previous state of affairs.

The problems I see with this one are that, for starters, you'd have to actually convince entreprenuers to go over there and risk their lives and capital in a warzone to start things - and you'd have to keep them protected, until a 'taboo' bubble really emerged to keep them relatively safe.

You'd also need to keep a number of soldiers posted overseas, so it's not really a full-blown 'pull-out'.

Everyone likely has different ideas regarding what parts of our culture are actually beneficial to be spreading around. No doubt not everyone would be keen on McDonalds continuing to pop-up like a canker every way you look.

...Among others, I'm sure you can poke in it yourself.

Anyway, that's just my mind rattling off things at work, so I'm more interested in what you guys might've thought more seriously about.