An important strategic decision and the decisive foreign policy issue before our leaders today: Do we listen to John Kerry and John Murtha, who follow the political winds, set an artificial timetable for the withdrawal of U.S. armed forces from Iraq? Or do we listen to the new, freely-elected Iraqi government, which in conjunction with coalition forces on the ground, has set a series of achievable benchmarks to determine the timing for foreign troop withdrawal and greater internal control?

Read the essay in today’s Washington Post by Iraq’s national security adviser Mowaffak al-Rubaie (HT: Austin Bay).

Question for the Party of Retreat and Defeatwhy now?