Stinky Changes Position on Iraq Withdrawal

[Stinky The Clown]

I have been of the Pottery Barn school of thought on Iraq. Surely not because I love war, but rather, for the usual reasons pleaded so often here by those of like mind ... a moral obligation of our nation to make right what a bad leader made wrong ..... no matter *who* elected or selected him.

But Joe Wilson, in his testimony to **Chairman** Conyers' **hearings**, changed my mind. Well, maybe not him, exactly, but the way he framed his view that our being there - or not - will do nothing to change the course of events in Iraq. Even if we go so far as to quell every bit of 'insurgency' that now exists, there will be a second, and maybe third generation of 'insurgents' that will follow.

Perhaps it was the way he framed it, perhaps it was just that I admire him. But no matter. The fact is, I had an epiphany while listening to him. My mind is now changed. We need to leave Iraq now.

I need to work through some more personal thoughts on this to clarify fully my own views, but I know for sure that my mind is changed.

Stinky the Clown
June 17, 2005

[Triana]

1. 'all war leads to is war' (n/t)

[KG]

2. stinky is moving toward enlightenment.

let nobody turn you from your path.

[radar]

3. Yeah, satus quo sure ain't very healthy for everyone in Iraq.

If the amount of violence happening in Iraq was occuring here in the States, people would be screaming for someone's head on a pike; and demanding faster results.
The Beltway Sniper had the mid-Atlantic region on edge; and that was just a couple guys with a rifle. Media was all up in the police asking questions.

"Last throes," "desperate enemy," "these things take time," "hard work" crap wouldn't cut it in this country.

The soldiers presence as "security" isn't showing a very good record of keeping civilians alive under the present format.

Friday, June 17, 2005
Bring 'em on: Twenty-six Iraqi soldiers killed by suicide bomber near Khalis.
Bring 'em on: Five US Marines killed by roadside bomb near Ramadi.
Bring 'em on: Eight Iraqi policemen killed, 25 wounded by car bomb on Baghdad airport road.
Bring 'em on: Iraqi woman killed by mortar fire near Kirkuk.
Bring 'em on: One US sailor killed by small arms fire near Ramadi.
Bring 'em on: Iraqi judge assassinated in Mosul.
Bring 'em on: Five Iraqi soldiers wounded by car bomb in Baghdad.
Bring 'em on: Seven Iraqis killed, 15 wounded by mortar fire in Tal Afar.
Bring 'em on: Heavy fighting reported near Qaim.
Bring 'em on: Seven Iraqi civilians killed in fighting near Qaim.
Bring 'em on: Pirates attack supertanker off Basra.
Bring 'em on: Three Iraqis killed by roadside bomb near Baquba.
Today In Iraq...
http://dailywarnews.blogspot.com/

[linazelle]

5. They "brought it" didn't they? n/t

[Stinky The Clown]

6. Just another day in war ....... thanks george.

you despicable motherfucker.

[countmyvote4real]

4. Follow the light, Stinky.

Congrats on your epiphany. And once our troops are out, U.S. oil companies will have to get their bloody hands off Iraq’s oil unless they’re willing to pay fair market prices like any other country.

[alcibiades_mystery]

7. It's been obvious to me for about a year

that our continued presence exacerbates the situation in Iraq, and that no amount of good will can reverse that. So it's a classic double bind: if we leave it descends into chaos (so it is said)...if we remain, the chaos escalates (this much is clear). Some would say, better the chaos we know with a chance to fix it, but it's increasingly clear that this is a fool's bargain, or a bad gambler's fallacy: throwing good money after bad, as it were, but its lives in the thousands, treasure in the tens of billions, and international respectability in whatever units of measure one can measure such a thing. Every gambler know, as Kenny Rogers once said, that the secret to survival is knowing what to throw away and knowing what to keep. It's time for us to get out of this hand...we've chased the impossible straight for too long, and staying in will not improve our prospects. It's only making it worse (and will only make it worse...our occupation knows no other way).

We broke it, to be sure, and we're responsible for it, but that responsibility, at this point, should take the form of reparations, not occupations. We should announce that we will withdraw all forces from Iraq by September 30, and follow through on that. The Pottery Barn metaphor has gone haywire...the US is like a customer that broke a vase and, in order to pay for it, insists on managing the store indefinitely...at gunpoint. BRAIN TEASER: At what point, in such a situation, does the management of the store by an unqualified buffoon under threat of violence start to make up for the broken vase? ANSWER: Never.