Ed Koch: Done Defending US Iraq Policy

"I'm bailing out. I will no longer defend the policy of keeping U.S. troops in Iraq to assist the Iraqi central government in the ongoing civil war."

- Ed Koch [Fox News]

Former NYC Mayor Ed Koch is jumping off the Bush bandwagon. Has he seen the light? Yes and no. His persistent stock in Friedman units still causes me to question his current judgement. Koch still credits captured braggart Khalid Sheikh Mohammed where credit may not be due. The terrorist is still given public credit by Mr. Koch for having murdered WSJ journalist Daniel Pearl, but recent developments lead us to question whether or not it was, indeed, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed who was actually Pearl's murderer.

According to the BBC, widow Marianne Pearl has initiated a lawsuit to bring out fact through more rule of law and less lawless Guantanamo bragging and conjecture:

The lawsuit notably names al-Qaeda, alleged al-Qaeda kingpin Khalid Sheikh Mohammed - who claimed responsibility for beheading Pearl and is now in US custody-- and Pakistan's Habib Bank among the defendants.

"I am looking for the truth of what happened to Daniel, for our family, our friends, and the public record," Mariane Pearl said in a statement.

"This process allows us to delve deeper into the investigation, and to bring accountability and punishment to those involved with his kidnapping, torture and murder," she said.

I'm not quite sure who Koch is blaming for Tony Blair's fall from grace:

Tony Blair was cast out as prime minister in part because he supported the U.S. in Iraq. Under the new prime minister, Laborite Gordon Brown, the British commitment is shrinking and the inevitability of a minimal and ultimately no British troop presence is clear.

He's not willing to let go of the fear-mongerer's meme about them following us home if we leave Iraq:

The American people no longer support our presence in Iraq. They made that clear in the 2006 congressional election when the majority in both Houses of Congress shifted to the Democrats. My own position has been that we were better off fighting Islamic terrorism in Iraq than abandoning and having that battle shift to American soil which I am certain will happen when we depart Iraq.

Mr. Koch, as so many writers and pundits tend to do, draws no distinctions between civil violence between Iraqis and the attacks that come from outside radical forces. He's not clear on exactly who's going to "follow us home". The bad guys in his narrative are lumped into our fortune in Iraq when, in reality, it is the Iraq war that is impeding the national security activities we could and should be pursuing.

But, at the very least, Koch is admitting that the foreign policy that the Bush administration has been pursuing for so many years is a sham and a failure - a fact that so many of us have seen for years. Welcome to your move toward reality, Mr. Koch. Thank God you aren't cursed with the Bill-Kristol-bubble syndrome.


Related:

Joe Gandelman talks about the Koch proclamation

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