Bush (and the Congress) should authorize and fund far more than just a billion-dollars public works program for Iraq. We should consider a long-range, 21st century-like Marshall Plan for aid, trade and investment throughout the Middle East and central Asia, from Afghanistan to Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine - if they and others would participate - in regional consultation and cooperation.
The situation looks bleak and the choices seem lousy, but we've got to give the president and his new strategy one more opportunity, as Sens. Joe Lieberman and John McCain have suggested. This should not be a blank check, and Nouri al-Maliki must be serious about ending his political alliance with radical fundamentalists.
But the consequences of walking away would be to cede control of the Gulf region over to Iran, the revolutionary regime that threatens Israel with annihilation, while arming Hezbollah, Hamas and the radical Shiites of Moqtada al-Sadr in Iraq. To walk away would also consign the decent and peace-loving Iraqis who sided with us to face a blood bath of unimaginable proportions.
Let's reaffirm to the Iraqis, the region and the world that we seek no permanent bases, no oil riches and that we are willing to work with all interested nations in the Middle East and North Africa to work out a modus vivendi with the Islamic world and that we are willing to listen to all suggestions for economic, political and cultural development.
One way to do this is to privatize Iraqi oil production for the good of all the Iraqis. The Iraqi oil industry is the most economically developed of all industries in the country. It would be a straightforward matter to privatize the industry by designating the existing administrative subdivisions of the industry as separate enterprises, each with an Iraqi CEO and board of directors, giving - not selling - an equal share of the stock in each of those enterprises to every Iraqi citizen. Presto, the industry is privatized, and the Iraqi people become shareholders in Iraqi oil production and in the Iraqi oil industry as well as shareholders in Iraq's move toward democratic development.
The president is right to go for this last effort and avoid the catastrophic defeat that would set off forces in the Middle East from which only Iran and al-Qaida could benefit. These ideas represent our best hope for success. Only after we've give it one last try can we say to ourselves and the world that we paid the price and met our obligations in the defense of freedom.