Today’s news that another four American soldiers were killed in Iraq is another tragedy of this conflict. My hometown is considering a resolution calling for an immediate withdrawal of military forces from Iraq. I have many friends and neighbors who support such a resolution; yet, I am unenthusiastic about such a prospect. On the one hand, it is an atrocity to watch my fellow countrymen die in a war which has no truthful justification or point. This administration, which prosecuted this war under false claims and exaggerations, should be impeached and jailed for fraud. They have bungled the actions in Iraq so badly that the word incompetent does not fall far enough to describe the quality actions. The entire post-invasion period has been nothing but a sea or corruption and abuse. As corporations take their profits and American soldiers are wounded and die, and the Iraqi people suffer.
If America was to pull its military out of Iraq today what would occur to those people whose country we have decimated? At this point the country has less infrastructure and stability then it did under its former dictator, and some type of civil war seems inevitable, whether American troops are there or not. Even with American support, it appears that the Iraqi constitution will include references to sharia law and Iraq will more towards an Iranian style government then a western democratic one. This appears to be a no win situation – one in which both Iraqis and Americans will suffer for some time to come. The current administration refuses to review any of its decisions or actions; so this leaves the reality of the future as bleak as the present.
I have no answer. If the military leaves Iraq there will be more violence and death, and no doubt, eventually, a government hostile to the US will emerge. If American forces stay in Iraq more Americans will die needlessly, and maybe, eventually, something approaching a rational country will emerge. In either case more Iraqis will die and more will look upon the US as their enemy. The present strategy of the administration seems to be to setup the situation as an Iraqi failure, one in which they can wash the hands of their responsibility and claim that they tried to establish democracy – but the Iraqis didn’t want it. This strategy will is a betrayal of all the casualties of this conflict.
What to do next is the question. . .
