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