Quote:
Originally Posted by dmek25
saden, have you started drinking the kool aid? staying in Iraq for 100 years shouldn't even be an option. and im interested to hear what people think would happen, if we do pull out? and the comment about wiping terrorists off the face of the earth is down right brutal. i don't care if we fight the gazillion years in Iraq, there will always be terrorists. i think you have done a 180 degree turn in your thinking
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I get the feeling saden was being playful, but I'm not. I agree with what he wrote, even if he doesn't.
Those who want to pull out of Iraq immediately think way too selfishly about the interests of the United States. Picture this: You hate your American government, it's a dictatorship and oppressive. A foreign military storms into the United States, defeats our military handily to the point where our own troops are deserting the fight, marches into our capital, overthrows our government, destroys our infrastucture so we have little electicity and poor quality drinking water, disrupts our security forces and police from doing their jobs. Got that picture in your head?
Now, imagine that even though you didn't like your American government that was just overthrown, you're more fearful now for your family's safety because there is no American police force, no American military, only this foreign force present in your streets. There's no order, they don't answer to you or your government, and you're not clear what the laws are and what the consequences are for certain actions. You're more fearful for you family's life than when your oppressive American government was in control. You need electricity, and there's nobody to complain to.
So a group of Americans, some loyal to the American regime that was just forced out, and some just flat out tired of the deplorable conditions, decide to take up arms against these foreign invaders. Fighting breaks out in streets in your neighborhood. Bombs go off at the supermarket, where you're simply trying to buy food for your family. The American uprising grows stronger, causing more fighting, and fighters from Canada and Mexico begin coming across the border to fight the foreign regime, many of whom shared radical religious beliefs with the former American dictator. The fight grows stronger and more intense.
You are scared, you are tired, and you're clamoring for life to return to normal. You recognize that the American uprising, this American insurgency, is not equipped to take on this powerful foreign regime, so they hide, and they plant bombs, but they never fight the foreign regime in a full-on attack. The foreign regime is forcing them to operate covertly. The foreign regime sends in a surge of troops, and helps to quell some of the violence, and things begin getting better, and your streets start to feel safer, and you start to feel hopeful that the worst is behind you.
Now, imagine that with this uprising in place, imagine that this foreign regime just leaves. You have no local police force worth a darn, no American military capable of maintaining security. How do you feel now? How do you feel as the radical American fighters come out of the woodwork, no longer suppressed by the presence of a powerful foreign military. They fight your pathetic excuse for an American military and kill what little police you have.
Are you scared? Is your life any better?
You may find fault with the reasons we went to Iraq, and I can't say I can disagree with that. And you may question the logic behind trying to fight terrorists in this manner, and I can't say I have much of an argument.
But the fact is we fucked up the lives of many, many innocent Iraqis. We CANNOT abandon them. We owe it to them to restore order. From a moral standpoint, I have a major problem with the United States leaving the Iraqi people in a worse situation than the one they had with Saddam in charge. We must see to it that they achieve a democratic society with the ability to at least maintain some semblance of security, at least as much as is possible in today's Middle East.
Morally, we owe them that much. On top of it, we stand to gain a permanent strategic military presence in the middle of that region. From a strategic defense standpoint against ICBMs and other long-range nuclear weapons, it is important to have a base established there capable of shooting down any Iranian ICBMs before they can threaten Europe, Asia, Israel, or the United States.
But nevermind the military strategy. From a moral standpoint, I cannot stomach abandoning the Iraqi people after all we've done to them.