Getting out of Iraq

With the fourth anniversary of 9/11 this Sunday and the continuing fallout from Hurricane Katrina, the spotlight has shifted from Iraq.

One person nudging it back is Slate "War Stories" columnist Fred Kaplan, who reality-checks three "widely discussed" proposals for how the United States could pull out of Iraq. They were written by Gen. Wesley Clark, military historian Andrew Krepinevich Jr. and Mideast expert Juan Cole.

The basic problem with such plans, as Kaplan puts it, is that "all of them evade a basic reality about Iraq these days—that the United States is no longer in control. President George W. Bush could follow the best of these plans, or devise a better one, and it wouldn't make much difference, because there's nothing to suggest that the Iraqis would go along."