It seems like everybody is coming up with an exit strategy from Iraq now. Rox (2005-11-17) tells me that John Murtha is now a man with a plan. Even Tony Blair is trying to work something out. According to the fashion of the times, I’ve got an exit strategy for the U.S. and U.K. forces to consider too. The best part about it is that it doesn’t set an arbitrary time-table and it only imposes three simple conditions to fulfill in order to get us out of Iraq with honor. Here’s the plan:

Map of metropolitan Baghdad thanks to GlobalSecurity.org.

My plan calls for:

1. Getting to here as quickly as you can while flying or driving safely.
2. Then, driving down this highway.
3. Then, flying home, preferably on a large jet, from here.

You might complain that this exit strategy sets a time-table. Well, not really, unless immediately counts as a schedule. But in any case it’s not an arbitrary time-table. The war was never justified to begin with and the occupation continues to make things worse the longer it continues. You might complain that this exit strategy doesn’t solve all of Iraq’s problems, doesn’t give us the opportunity to Iraqitize (sic) or internationalize or train more police officers or root out more insurgents or guide Iraq further down the primrose path to liberal democracy. I agree that it doesn’t, but I consider its simplicity a virtue, not a defect. What have we been trying to do for the past 2 1/2 years, if not all that? How’s that been working out for us?

US forces yesterday made their clearest admission yet that white phosphorus was used as a weapon against insurgents in Iraq. A Pentagon spokesman told the BBC last night that it had been used as an incendiary weapon during the assault last year on Falluja in 2004.

— The Guardian 2005-11-16: US admits using white phosphorous in Falluja

But it’s not, technically speaking, a chemical weapon. And it doesn’t violate any international treaties. That the U.S. has ratified, anyway.

WASHINGTON, Nov 16 (Reuters) — The Pentagon on Wednesday acknowledged using incendiary white-phosphorus munitions in a 2004 offensive against insurgents in the Iraqi city of Falluja and defended their use as legal, amid concerns by arms control advocates.

…

It’s part of our conventional-weapons inventory and we use it like we use any other conventional weapon, added Bryan Whitman, another Pentagon spokesman.

—Reuters 2005-11-16: US defends use of white phosphorus weapons in Iraq

Emphasis is mine.

Here are some legal uses of conventional weapons.

Napalm. Tokyo, 10 March 1945.

Napalm and white phosphorus. Trang Bang, Vietnam, 8 June 1972.

White phosphorus. Fallujah, November 2004.

White phosphorus firebombing of Fallujah

This is conventional aerial warfare using conventional weapons adhering to the letter of all the treaties that the goverment of the United States is a party to. This is imperial power in its fullest glory, restrained by all the civilized restraints that it deems necessary and proper for itself. This is its morality. This is its justice. This is its law.