Must Read Article on Iraq - Oct Harper's

[HardWorkingDem]

This article is an eye opener. It was originally published in Foreign Policy magazine and is now adapted in the Oct 05 Harper's.

The contents of this article show that the war in Iraq is much, much more complex than most are willing to accept.

Our government, by selling this war as a comic book war (by this I mean, leading the American people to believe in black and white, good and evil and right and wrong) has vastly misled the American people.

Our soldiers are faced with a vastly complex problem that politicians have not explained to the American people.

Please give this article an examination.


http://www.californiapeaceaction.org/capa/index.php?option=com_news&task=view&Itemid=82&id=271

[Bernardo de La Paz]

1. "war in Iraq is much, much more complex than most are willing to accept."

So true.

There are a lot of nitwits running around here now saying "pull out immediately". That would be no more effective than using "pull out" as a repeated method of birth control.

[MissMarple]

2. I agree abandoning Iraq now would be dangerous.

I do agree, as well, with Clark's three point plan using diplomacy, Iraqi politics, and better military strategy to set the stage for a withdrawal.

And I support Cindy Sheehan. Her crusade brings attention to this illbegotten, amoral war.

[goodhue]

3. Here is another must read from Juan Cole . . .

http://www.juancole.com/2005/09/why-we-have-to-get-troops-out-of-iraq.html

[al bupp]

4. I agree, this is a must-read piece

Read it just last night, thinking that I had to post a recommendation for to DU, but you beat me to it, my friend.

Basically, the article argues that a withdrawal of US forces from Iraq offers the best possibility for stability in the region. It makes this argument perhaps somewhat counter-intuitively by asserting that it will likely take an Iraqi civil-war to resolve long-standing disputes among the Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, and that it is only the presence of foreign troops which is preventing this.

FWIW, it seems to me that the article echos much of what Rick Hertzberg said yesterday on the Al Franken show.