Although opinion polls now show that most Americans feel the U.S. made a mistake sending troops to Iraq, there's no agreement on what exactly to do about it and -- crucially -- whether the U.S. should leave. A new campaign to end the war, "Iraq the Vote," offers a simple yet powerful solution endorsed by Nobel Laureates, Middle East experts, and thousands of citizens from around the world: ask the Iraqis!
The IraqTheVote.org web site features an online petition with two components. First, it calls upon the Iraqi government to include in its next national election a referendum question letting citizens vote on whether they want coalition troops to leave their country. Second, the petition calls upon U.S. leaders to pledge that if a majority of Iraqis vote for a troop withdrawal, U.S. forces will be withdrawn as specified in the referendum.
Iraq the Vote hands a war exit strategy to any politician wise enough to use it (Barack, are you listening?): instead of wringing our hands about whether a troop withdrawal might leave Iraq worse off, ask Iraqis what they prefer. It is, after all, their country. Indeed, Iraq the Vote sends just the right message to restore our international reputation: We respect the right of sovereign nations to decide their own future, and we support real democracy, not just democracy-so-long-as-we-like-the-outcome.
If a majority of Iraqi citizens vote for a troop withdrawal (which surveys strongly suggest they will do), then Iraqis will have their wishes heeded, U.S. troops will be removed from danger, and American politicians will have political cover. On the other hand, if Iraqis vote against a troop withdrawal, then at least our legitimacy -- and perhaps also our efficacy -- will be increased.
Note an important asymmetry here: If Iraqis want us to stay, we are not obligated to stay, but if they ask us to leave, we are legally obligated to respect their wishes. As General Richard Myers, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, has noted, "They can ask us to leave anytime, and we'd be obligated to do it because they're a sovereign government."
The Iraq the Vote web site has a long list of obvious questions, with thoughtful answers to each. Who would draft the referendum language? The Iraqis, naturally, perhaps by having the Iraqi government appoint a nonpartisan task force to draft the referendum text, working with Iraq's Independent High Electoral Commission and using the last national referendum as a procedural precedent. How would we know the referendum results are legitimate? Through the use of independent monitoring and United Nations assistance, which worked effectively in Iraq's 2005 referendum.
Would a U.S. withdrawal signal defeat? The web site answers: "No. The U.S. has long pledged that it would leave as soon as Iraqis said they were ready to maintain their own security. Moreover, supporters of the war would be able to claim accomplishments such as removing the military threat posed by Iraq, bringing Saddam Hussein to justice for crimes against humanity, and giving Iraqi citizens the opportunity to adopt a representative form of government."
Letting the Iraqis decide their own fate via referendum is not a new idea; it follows directly from an understanding of sovereignty and a respect for democracy (on this point, see the eloquent essay by Lawrence Wright in the New Yorker last October). In fact, the idea has been articulated by the Bush administration itself, including the President, who said at a press conference in 2007: "We are there at the invitation of the Iraqi government. This is a sovereign nation ... If they were to say, leave, we would leave."
Although it may be too late to hold President Bush to this promise, it is surely not too late to ask all presidential and congressional candidates whether they agree that Iraq is a sovereign nation, whether they support democracy in the Middle East, and whether they accept the conclusion that follows from these premises: that Iraqis have the legal right to decide when foreign troops should leave.
