Iraq - Time To Go

As a former U. S. Marine and stepfather of a serving Marine, I am faced with a gut-wrenching dilemma.

Like most Americans (and all politicians), I support the troops. Their quality, intelligence,and dedication has never been higher. And by supporting the troops I mean providing them with all the necessary weapons, supplies and equipment required to complete their missions and to defeat our enemies.

But I believe we are at the point in Iraq that we have to ask ourselves whether the battle is still ours.

When we took over the country and ran Saddam and his cohorts to ground, we accomplished what most thought was our original objective. We found no weapons of mass destruction, this administration’s the excuse for invading the country. Then we sponsored the first free elections Iraq has experienced in decades. They elected their leaders. But unlike us, they resolve their political differences through violence. Now we appear to be in the middle of it, attacked by all parties because they resent our presence.

Let’s face it. We can’t solve the Iraqis’ problems. Only the Iraqi’s can solve Iraqi problems. They may choose to do so through violence. So be it, but we don’t have to in the middle of it. We’ve given them a chance to live in a free and democratic society. That’s all we can do, to provide them the opportunity. Tribal warfare and being conquered by foreign invaders has been their history. We can’t undo a culture that has been in the making for thousands of years.

So let’s tell the Iraqis that it’s all theirs now, and that we are leaving.

But what about al Queda? And what about the Iranian influence? What about “fighting al Queda in Iraq so we don’t have to fight them in America?” It appears we may stand a greater danger from al Queda by not securing our own borders than we do by letting them die on the vine in Iraq. Middle Eastern documents have been found in the Texas and Arizona deserts. That points to the possibility that al Queda has been infiltrating our country through Mexico. There’s no doubt that the “War on Terror” is real, but we couldn’t we fight it better if we withdrew our troops from Iraq and started rebuilding our forces for other possible conflicts?

Our soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have performed exceptionally under difficult and dangerous conditions. There is no dishonor to them to bring them home. We should honor them as the true patriots and heroes that they are. We are not going to change a people and a country that has been in conflict and blood feuds for thousands of years.

If you want to know the true cost of staying in Iraq, I would encourage you to view the following web site:

http://www.pcsuccess.us/yrg/farewellmarine_final.swf

Iraq - What Now?

Tending to personal and family commitments, Middle Class Warrior has been silent for several months. So much has happened since November 2006 that it was like a big meal that took a long time to digest.

The Democrats won the House and the Senate, repudiating not only the Bush administration’s handling of the war in Iraq but also, I believe, a rejection of their insensitivity to the plight of the Middle Class. If we can believe the Democratic Party leadership, they want to address our massive health care problem, move toward energy independence, and create more good paying jobs. Though I believe the House of Representatives will do all it can to move this agenda forward, it will be the Senate, where corporate campaign contributions is the blood on which the institution thrives, that will make or break these initiatives. Watch the Senate. These people don’t work for you, but for the corporations and lobbying groups that fund their campaigns.

But the biggest issue, the one that’s on the mind of almost every American, is Iraq. What do we do? Follow the President’s “new” course of surging a further troop buildup? Phase down our commitment by slowly bringing our troops home? Pull the plug as soon as possible?

That’s the debate and it will continue as long as Bush is in office. Let’s face it. We all know now that going into Iraq, as ignorant as we were, was a mistake. We had no idea what we were getting into. Most experts can’t even agree about that now. Are we fighting an insurgency? A counterterrorism operation? A civil war? It’s most likely a combination of all three. The question we have to ask ourselves is how do we handle it? Can we handle it? Should we handle it?

Like most Americans, I’m thoroughly disgusted with the Iraqis. We deposed a regime that had terrorized them for years. They were grateful—for a while. We had a small window of opportunity to transform their initial gratitude into a positive force. But we didn’t find ways to get these people quickly employed. We chased off the technocrats who could run the infrastructure because most of them were associated with Sadaam’s political party. We brought in American firms with Republican political connections to rake profits off of the “rebuilding” of Iraq. While we were fighting our “War on Terror”, the Iraqis were maneuvering behind the scenes to achieve the political agendas of their respective factions through violence and “ethnic cleansing.”

Now we’ve got what we’ve got; an insurgency, a counterterrorism operation, a civil war. A mess is the best description.

So what do we do now?

Here’s my recommendation. Give the President’s “troop surge” six months to work. If it doesn’t, pull all of our troops out of the center of the country. Mass them along Iraq’s borders with Syria and Iran. Seal off the borders from any outside infiltrators and foreign fighters. Let the Iraqis fight it out among themselves. Maybe without our troops in the middle, they’ll figure out a way to live peacefully. Once the Iraqis fill their power vacuum, we back the winner, declare victory, and come home.

But here’s the sad truth. We’re going to be in Middle East for a long, long time. Until we solve our debt problem to the Arab sheikdoms and end our dependence on their oil.

If you’d like to contribute to the foregoing, you can comment on this site by becoming a ‘blogger’ or you can e-mail me at WGDavis46@aol.com.

Visit my web site: www.authorsden.com/williamgdavis