To those who favor us staying in Iraq

[dsc]

What is the goal we should accomplish before we leave and how can we do it? Presumedly we don't want to stay forever. I honestly can't see anything we are accomplishing. We aren't creating a professional army. We aren't creating a professional police force. We aren't creating a business class. I see no way for us to create a stable Iraq to leave without us staying for a longer time than anyone wants to stay.

I have a great deal of respect for the position that we broke Iraq so we need to fix it. I just don't see anyway for us to actually fix it. We are no longer, if we ever were, being seen as an honest broker. Without us being seen as honest brokers our products, police and army, won't be trusted. It is hard to see any amount of time changing this situation.

So I guess I am asking just what is fixing Iraq?

[mike_c]

1. democracy, christianity, and a negative trade balance with the U.S....

...should do nicely, I think. Maybe an Iraqi guest worker plan in the U.S., too.

This :sarcasm: hardly seems necessary, but you never know....

[NanceGreggs]

2. I was against this war from day one ...

... and once we were there, I didn't change that position.

Right now, I believe it is broken beyond our ability to fix it, so there's truly no point in staying.

I support the Iraqi people; what has been done to them and their country is beyond appalling.

The ONLY way this would have been 'fixable', even after a million mistakes, would have been to SHOW THEM THE MONEY!

Had the billions of dollars of taxpayers' money been utilized in the way it was allegedly intended to be used, this disaster might be salvageable vis a vis the citizens of Iraq.

Had our tax dollars gone directly to pay for the rebuilding and equipping of hospitals and schools, the electrical grid, clean drinking water, etc., it would not only have given the Iraqis a motive for rebuilding their own country and coming to terms with their inter-cultural differences, it would have given well-paying jobs to people who were desirous of a better life.

As things have turned out, thanks to BU$HCO, Iraqis have no freedom, no hope for the future, and no MONEY to rebuild their country.

Where is the MONEY, Halliburton? Where did it GO? A BILLION dollar profit last year, and you apparently can't afford an ACCOUNTANT who can pin-point exactly where the money went!

Unfortunately for Iraq, it is now too late for the US to accomplish anything of value.

Let's pull our troops out NOW, before the bloodshed gets even worse -- and it will.

And in their place, let's send the upper management of Halliburton to Baghdad. Let THEM clean up the mess they've made, along with Bush, his administration, and the idiots who sold this pig-in-a-poke not only to Iraqis, but to American citizens.

[RaleighNCDUer]

4. You got it.

Whatever the rationale for going there in the first place, if we had pulled out the week we caught Saddam and replaced 150,000 men with 150,000,000,000 dollars, leaving them to spend it how and where they would, their country would be up and running now and it would have cost us less.

But Halliburton's profit margin would have been lower, and all those blackshirt mercenaries would have missed out on valuable training on dealing with a civilian insurgency.

[Inland]

3. It doesn't matter what goal you pick for Iraq.

Nothing worth accomplishing is going to be accomplished by the evil cretins running our government. To use a football analogy, there's no sense drawing up plays as long as Bush is quarterback: he can't do the job, won't leave the field, and therefore I'm not going to pick goals that could be accomplished by a hypothetical reasonably competent US acting in good faith.

Given the reality of Bush having no interest in, or aptitude for, anything except using the war for personal power, rewarding cronies and supporters, and escaping blame for the results, there's no "goal" worth considering except to get as many American military and Iraqis out of the man's clutches as soon as possible by withdrawing.