The Wrong Side of the Fence
I have of late, found myself in a very unfamiliar position for a man of my political ideology. That is to say, over the last few weeks I have actually been in agreement with some members of the Republican Party and EVEN the President. Honestly, if you had told me a month ago that I would ever agree with GW on a major political issue, I would have told you that you had probably fallen down and hit your head. However as hard as it is to believe, right now as far as Iraq is concerned, I am 100% in agree with Pres. Bush and Senator McCain with respect to their idea on pulling our troops out of Iraq. We simply cannot even consider pulling out right now, regardless of the cost to our armed forces.
For the record, let me restate that I think the Iraq war will go down as one of the biggest blunders in United States history. I think George Bush is an idiot, who was manipulated by Dick Cheney and other powerful "big oil" types, who persuaded him to 'get rich quick' by trumping up phony accounts of WWMDs, biological weapons labs and an Al-Queda presence in Iraq. NONE of these claims was ever proven to be true...in fact quite the contrary. None the less, under these pretenses, our country launched an illegal invasion of a sovereign foreign nation (albeit one we didn't like) in the hopes of providing our country with a friendly puppet government in the middle east that would sell us cheap oil. We were told we would be greeted as 'liberators' and that the Iraqi people would be so overjoyed to be out from under the thumb of Saddam that they would forget that they've loathed each others very existence for fifty generations. Once again, a catastrophic lapse in judgement. However, now that's we're there we simply cant leave.
This is the part where I agree with some of the Republican leadership...we have created this abysmal mess in Iraq, and we MUST stay to clean it up, for the sake of our citizens and for the sake of the world. You may think this sounds a tad melodramatic, but let me assure you, it's not. Recent studies have indicated beyond any reasonable doubt that if we leave now, Iraq will be plunged into a civil war, from which it may never recover. The country would most likely fracture into something resembling a new Bosnia, with Shiites and Sunnis claiming 2/3 of the land, and other militant groups claiming the last 1/3. However, on a global scale there are far more deadly repercussions.
Withdrawing from Iraq now would turn that country into the largest terrorist training camp on earth, and into something that makes Afghanistan look like pre-school. The thing of it is this - before we invaded Iraq, it had ZERO connection to Al-Queda or any other terror groups hostile to the U.S. In fact, Saddam Hussein openly shunned any contact with Bin Laden and his operation, and generally prevented them from entering his country. Of course, that all went down hill as soon as the first U.S. tank rolled onto Iraqi soil. Now the 'godless Americans' have invaded the holy land in a 'crusade', and people are literally lining up to try and drive us back out. Today, the Al-Queda terrorist network is firmly entrenched in Iraq, amongst a people we "liberated" who have since watched us kill innocent civilians, torture it's captured soldiers, build up it's oil infrastructure and attempt to install our own government. Imagine for a moment what happens if we pull our troops out now. What happens when we remove the tiny bit of glue still holding that country together. What would occur would be the creation of the largest, most developed terrorist country on earth. Why? Simple - because if we withdraw and the country collapses into civil war, the terrorist network already in place now in that country will be given a free hand to work, and they will gain assistance from countries such as Iran, who as demonstrated that they have at least limited nuclear capacity. With no Iraqi government in place to attempt to thwart any of this, and no foreign country willing to put it's soldiers lives on the line, Al-Queda would have a base from which they could strike anywhere in the world, and they would have the means by which to do it. Pres. Bush is currently fond of saying the a withdrawal would "embolden" the terrorists. This is total BS. Withdrawing now would not "embolden" the terrorists. The terrorists are plenty bold enough as it is. What it would do is present them with the perfect environment in which to grow and solidify their base, with little or no outside interference.
No, if for no other reason than the security of our country, we need to be in this for the long haul. Nevermind the fact that we made this mess and are obligated to clean it up - we MUST clean it up or we WILL expose ourselves to another September 11th. I for one loathe the fact that the men and women of our armed forces will have to pay for one mans mistake with their blood, but it cannot be any other way. Right now politicians on both sides of the isle are moving to turn withdrawal in to a campaign issue. They're making promises to pullout by the end of the year, or begin a partial withdrawal in 9 months, etc. etc. However this is not the time to use the public distaste for this war as political capital! At least not in terms of promising a withdrawal! Because if politicians make these promises now, then the public might actually push for a withdrawal and as I've said, that simply cannot happen. We cannot leave Iraq until the country has stabilized, the violence has subsided, an Iraqi security force has been fully trained and the Iraqi government has proven that it can stand on it's own two feet. Until these conditions have been met, the United States MUST continue to be the glue that holds Iraq together - for everyone's sake.
For the record, let me restate that I think the Iraq war will go down as one of the biggest blunders in United States history. I think George Bush is an idiot, who was manipulated by Dick Cheney and other powerful "big oil" types, who persuaded him to 'get rich quick' by trumping up phony accounts of WWMDs, biological weapons labs and an Al-Queda presence in Iraq. NONE of these claims was ever proven to be true...in fact quite the contrary. None the less, under these pretenses, our country launched an illegal invasion of a sovereign foreign nation (albeit one we didn't like) in the hopes of providing our country with a friendly puppet government in the middle east that would sell us cheap oil. We were told we would be greeted as 'liberators' and that the Iraqi people would be so overjoyed to be out from under the thumb of Saddam that they would forget that they've loathed each others very existence for fifty generations. Once again, a catastrophic lapse in judgement. However, now that's we're there we simply cant leave.
This is the part where I agree with some of the Republican leadership...we have created this abysmal mess in Iraq, and we MUST stay to clean it up, for the sake of our citizens and for the sake of the world. You may think this sounds a tad melodramatic, but let me assure you, it's not. Recent studies have indicated beyond any reasonable doubt that if we leave now, Iraq will be plunged into a civil war, from which it may never recover. The country would most likely fracture into something resembling a new Bosnia, with Shiites and Sunnis claiming 2/3 of the land, and other militant groups claiming the last 1/3. However, on a global scale there are far more deadly repercussions.
Withdrawing from Iraq now would turn that country into the largest terrorist training camp on earth, and into something that makes Afghanistan look like pre-school. The thing of it is this - before we invaded Iraq, it had ZERO connection to Al-Queda or any other terror groups hostile to the U.S. In fact, Saddam Hussein openly shunned any contact with Bin Laden and his operation, and generally prevented them from entering his country. Of course, that all went down hill as soon as the first U.S. tank rolled onto Iraqi soil. Now the 'godless Americans' have invaded the holy land in a 'crusade', and people are literally lining up to try and drive us back out. Today, the Al-Queda terrorist network is firmly entrenched in Iraq, amongst a people we "liberated" who have since watched us kill innocent civilians, torture it's captured soldiers, build up it's oil infrastructure and attempt to install our own government. Imagine for a moment what happens if we pull our troops out now. What happens when we remove the tiny bit of glue still holding that country together. What would occur would be the creation of the largest, most developed terrorist country on earth. Why? Simple - because if we withdraw and the country collapses into civil war, the terrorist network already in place now in that country will be given a free hand to work, and they will gain assistance from countries such as Iran, who as demonstrated that they have at least limited nuclear capacity. With no Iraqi government in place to attempt to thwart any of this, and no foreign country willing to put it's soldiers lives on the line, Al-Queda would have a base from which they could strike anywhere in the world, and they would have the means by which to do it. Pres. Bush is currently fond of saying the a withdrawal would "embolden" the terrorists. This is total BS. Withdrawing now would not "embolden" the terrorists. The terrorists are plenty bold enough as it is. What it would do is present them with the perfect environment in which to grow and solidify their base, with little or no outside interference.
No, if for no other reason than the security of our country, we need to be in this for the long haul. Nevermind the fact that we made this mess and are obligated to clean it up - we MUST clean it up or we WILL expose ourselves to another September 11th. I for one loathe the fact that the men and women of our armed forces will have to pay for one mans mistake with their blood, but it cannot be any other way. Right now politicians on both sides of the isle are moving to turn withdrawal in to a campaign issue. They're making promises to pullout by the end of the year, or begin a partial withdrawal in 9 months, etc. etc. However this is not the time to use the public distaste for this war as political capital! At least not in terms of promising a withdrawal! Because if politicians make these promises now, then the public might actually push for a withdrawal and as I've said, that simply cannot happen. We cannot leave Iraq until the country has stabilized, the violence has subsided, an Iraqi security force has been fully trained and the Iraqi government has proven that it can stand on it's own two feet. Until these conditions have been met, the United States MUST continue to be the glue that holds Iraq together - for everyone's sake.
posted by CarpeDM | 7:51 PM
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