Out of Iraq
by George McGovern and William R. Polk

From Booklist

Despite the neoconservative mantra that a U.S. withdrawal from Iraq now would be a cut-and-run move that would encourage our enemies, McGovern, Democratic icon, and Polk, former professor and presidential advisor during the Cuban missile crisis, argue that immediate withdrawal is the sensible thing to do. Calling the war "a terrible and useless waste," they maintain that it is bankrupting the U.S. economy, increasing the threat of terrorist attacks on the U.S., and continuing to cost lives as U.S. soldiers return with life-altering and -threatening injuries and maladies. After offering a historical overview of the Middle East and other failed attempts by the British to graft a Western-style democracy in Iraq, McGovern and Polk offer a proposal for a phased withdrawal beginning in December 2006 to be completed by June 2007. The plan includes a two-year commitment to help Iraq rebuild and recover, training of an Iraqi national police force, and construction of a U.S. embassy outside the Green Zone to begin normalizing relations with Iraq.