Paul Krugman Untangles Iraq

Krugman answers whether there is a way out.


Question: What's the way out of Iraq?
Paul Krugman: Somebody said, I think, in trucks is the way out.  You know the . . .  We're not doing any good there now.  You have a government which is essentially a mild Shiite theocracy.  Not clear that they need us to sustain themselves.  We are . . . we are actually in a position of, to the extent that there is a civil war underway.  And we are actually arming both sides at this point, you know?  We talk about success in ________ Province.  That's basically because we took what had been the insurgents and said, "Okay, here's some money and here's some weapons.  And will you please stop attacking our troops?" which they have.  But this is . . . this doesn't make sense.  So you know I think we just need to say okay this . . .  We could say look, we overthrew Saddam.  Otherwise things didn't turn out the way we wanted.  Let's leave.