Coyote Crunch

The Iraqis Will Decide: Congratulations to the brave Iraquis on their election. What has been bothering the coyotes about the recent "debate" on withdrawing our troops out of Iraq is that it is so ill-timed--as if the Iraqi election of a parliament is of no consequence. In fact, Iraq's representative government--assuming they can form one--will have the most to say about when and how we leave. Consider: if a duly elected Iraqi government asks us to withdraw our troops immediately or to specify a timetable for removing them, how could we refuse? Conversely, if they asked us to stay indefinitely, how could we refuse? Don't we want them to get to the point where they can decide those things? Wouldn't that be a real victory? Granted, we could find ourselves in a situation where the Iraqis can't form a governing coalition or can't come to a clear decision, but let's not cross those bridges until we come to them. Talking about what we will do as if the Iraqis--in the form of duly elected government--seems, well, let's just call it and ugly form of "cultural hubris" rather than something more inflammatory. Wile E.