Larry C. Johnson - Why We Must Leave Iraq.

[reprehensor]

Why We Must Leave Iraq

Sometimes in life there are no good options. It is part of our nature to always assume that we can fix a problem. But in life there are many problems or situations where there is no pleasant solution. If you were at the Windows on the World Restaurant in the North Tower of the World Trade Center at 9 am on September 11, 2001 you had no good options. You could choose to jump or to burn to death. Some choice.

A hard, clear-eyed look at the current situation in Iraq reveals that we are confronted with equally bad choices. If we stay we are facilitating the creation of an Islamic state that will be a client of Iran. If we pull out we are likely to leave the various ethnic groups of Iraq to escalate the civil war already underway. In my judgment we have no alternative but to pull our forces out of Iraq. Like it or not, such a move will be viewed as a defeat of the United States and will create some very serious foreign policy and security problems for us for years to come. However, we are unwilling to make the sacrifices required to achieve something approximating victory. And, what would victory look like? At a minimum we should expect a secular society where the average Iraqi can move around the country without fear of being killed or kidnapped. That is not the case nor is it on the horizon.

We may even be past the point of no return where we could impose changes that would put Iraq back on course to be a secular, democratic nation without sparking a major Shiite counteroffensive. Therefore the time has come to minimize further unnecessary loss of life by our troops and re-craft a new foreign and security policy for the Middle East.

snip

The Sunni insurgents have control of the battlefield in the central belt of Iraq. Even today the United States military cannot keep a six mile stretch of highway open that runs from downtown Baghdad to the International Airport. US diplomatic personnel and many key Iraqi Government officials live inside a security ghetto known euphemistically as the Green Zone. Even during the bleakest days of the war in South Vietnam, US diplomats and soldiers could travel freely around Saigon without fear of being killed in bomb blast or kidnapped. We don't have that luxury in Baghdad.

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[Bobbieo]

1. Why We Must Leave Iraq

Yes, Larry it is a lose-lose situation. I don't see how our troops will be able to stop the civil war that is inevitable. There is so much hate between all of the factions. Wasn't it Karl Marx who said, "Religion is the opiate of the people."?

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[mikelewis]

4. The big difference is...

At the end of World War 2, the people of those countries were defeated. Anyone who could offer up a defense was already broken from war or dead. In World War 2, we conquered the people not just the government. We did not do this in Iraq. I assume Bush believed there would be the dancing and the celebrating in the streets and the minimal afterwar planning that may have been done (all evidence to the contrary) did not involve the people of Iraq.

Btw Welcome to DU

[reprehensor]

5. You're right.

There is no negotiating with crytpo-fascist, failed Trotskyist (look it up) Neocons.