Time to leave Iraq?
How long till we're out of Iraq? To my knowledge, no one is suggesting we stay in Iraq forever, so this isn't a question of if we're leaving but when. Of course, we went to Iraq for a reason. Victory in Iraq used to mean something: (1) Outsting Saddam, (2) Finding the WMD that were in imminent danger of falling in to terrorist hands, and (3) Helping the Iraqis set up a constitutional democracy - which would, of course, spread freedom and pro-western democracies all over the Near East region. Well, Saddam is gone, there were no WMD (unless you're Crazy Rick "OMG WMDS ARE EVERYWHERE LOL!!11" Santorum), and the government is up but only religious fundamentalism is spreading.
What are we still fighting for in Iraq? The only valid reason for occupying Iraq that still holds any water at all is the security situation. Because Bush's war destroyed the structure of Iraqi society, and because apparently Iraqis really hate each other, Iraq is now spiriling from low-grade into large-scale civil war complete with ethnic genocide. Attacks and deaths from Iraqi infighting now exceeds that from the insurgents. The U.S. has long been unable to make long-term gains against the US presense-fueled insurgency. But even if that somehow changed, our military is not going to be effective in stoping Iraqi's from killing each other en masse over millenium-old religious hatreds and injustices. So the security thing doesn't even fly any more.
How much more blood and money are we going to lose in Bush's war? It won't be until "victory" because we've already been victorious in our original goals, so we're really already victorious in that regard. I can't really call a bloody civil war victory, but I'm not delusional enough to think that a foreign military can stop another nation's civil war. Religious civil wars stop when people decide not to kill each other, and that is something that can only come from the Iraqi people lead by their government.
It is often the policy of
It is often the policy of tyrants to bring their people into a position from which they cannot extricate themselves. Therefore, they are doomed to continue the policy of the tyrant. Such is the position we have been put in in Iraq. But there is a solution: The same one for the War against the Vietnamese. Leave. We can wait for years to leave until we are forced out and the helicopters must airlift the last few pro-American survivors from the rooftop of the American Embassy. Or we can take forethought and leave now. When we leave, we should take to America as many of the pro-American Iraqis as want to leave, as we did in Vietnam.
Undoubtedly, there will be much suffering an bloodshed after we leave, as there was in Vietnam. Probably even more than now when we are still in Iraq. And there is the same danger (which Bush the First avoided by not attacking Saddam) as there was in Vietnam in 1975, that other countries (such as China or Russia in the case of Vietnam and Iran in the case of Iraq) will dominate. In which case I say "good luck." If Iran seeks to dominate Iraq, it will finally face Iraqi nationalism and sel-interest, the very same that drove us out.
Realistically, we will have to wait until Bush and Cheney are replaced in 2009 (such a long time! so many deaths!) I suspect even a Republican Administration would find the lack of public support for the war would require us to leave. Unless we get 1. another maniac such as Bush or 2. a Democrat who is so concerned to look tough that he or she ignores common sense and continues to waste the blood of young American men in the quest for reputation.
Its sad that Bush's plan for
Its sad that Bush's plan for Iraq is to pass it on to the next guy. Plus, our two most likely future presidents, Hillary & McCain, aren't exactly supportive of large-scale withdrawl. Who knows what will happen...
George Bush on Iraq in his
George Bush on Iraq in his own words:
"My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger."
"On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war."
"In this conflict, America faces an enemy who has no regard for conventions of war or rules of morality." - Like the Geneva conventions?
"We have no ambition in Iraq, except to remove a threat and restore control of that country to its own people."
"The people of the United States and our friends and allies will not live at the mercy of an outlaw regime that threatens the peace with weapons of mass murder. We will meet that threat now, with our Army, Air Force, Navy, Coast Guard and Marines, so that we do not have to meet it later with armies of fire fighters and police and doctors on the streets of our cities."
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