COVER STORY

Is this it? Five-plus years after the United States’ invasion of Iraq and two years after Wisconsin Sen. Russ Feingold first called for a troop-withdrawal timetable, the U.S. may be shifting its military and diplomatic strategy in the Middle East.

Maybe.

While Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama has called for a 16-month troop-withdrawal timetable, an idea backed by Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki, the Bush administration and Republican nominee Sen. John McCain are pushing back hard. McCain has derided Obama’s plan, claiming that the Democrat doesn’t really understand what’s “at stake.” President Bush has assented to some sort of vague “time horizon,” but that proposal hasn’t been taken seriously.Feingold says it’s about time that the country’s leadership had a serious discussion about how to get out of Iraq. The withdrawal process, he says, should have already begun since the American people have been “fed up with this war” for a long time.

“We could have been out of there a long time ago,” Feingold said in an exclusive interview with the Shepherd Express last week. “And in a much better position as a nation, both in terms of our economy and national security, if we had done this earlier.”

He argues that a phased withdrawal strategy is “just plain logical” even though his proposal was seen as unusual in 2006. Fastforward two years and Feingold’s position is the consensus view.

“Now just about everyone’s on board, except for basically George Bush, Dick Cheney and John McCain,” Feingold says. “Even Maliki, who has resisted this even though the [Iraqi] parliament and people of Iraq have wanted it for a long time, is now saying this [is the best choice].”