Opinion: In today’s pages: Iraq outlook and DEA busts
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Contributing editor Timothy Garton Ash takes the long view on Iraq, and it doesn’t look good:
So Iraq is over. But Iraq has not yet begun. Not yet begun in terms of the consequences for Iraq itself, the Middle East, the United States’ own foreign policy and its reputation in the world.... [A] pained and painstaking study from the Brookings Institution argues that what its authors call ‘soft partition’ — the peaceful, voluntary transfer of an estimated 2 million to 5 million Iraqis into distinct Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite regions, under close U.S. military supervision — would be the lesser evil. The lesser evil, that is, assuming that all goes according to plan and that Americans are prepared to allow their troops to stay in sufficient numbers to accomplish that thankless job — two implausible assumptions. A greater evil is more likely.
Columnist Patt Morrison exposes the costs of keeping the governor’s Gulfstream going, and Yeshiva University law professor Marci A. Hamilton thanks Sacramento for its historic legislation letting victims of abuse sue the Los Angeles Archdiocese.
The editorial board examines the National Intelligence Estimate and cuts through common partisan responses. The board also explains why the Drug Enforcement Administration is going after L.A. landlords, and why the National Football League’s tight grip on its copyrights could backfire.
On the letters page, see Mission Viejo’s Joseph Lea’s solution for California’s water woes.