I like reading the opinions of everyday people (people like me), as opposed to the carefully crafted responses of politicians, which are almost always designed to gain poll points while avoiding angering any major campaign funders. CNN published a collection of emails from people regarding their opinions about when we should bring troops from Iraq. Most favored a speedy withdrawal. Here are a few of my favorites:
I remember a big giant banner supposedly made by the crew of a carrier: Mission Accomplished! Today I hear: "When we win the war," "victory must be assured," and all of these things that talk about the continued "war." What mission did we accomplish exactly? Get them home. Now.
Matt Moore, Austin, Texas
Unless Bush is willing to send his two daughters to fight, we should pull out. Bush is the most hated man in the world and made the U.S. more of a target for terrorists. The money could then be used for national health care and Katrina. We need health insurance!
M.J. Osgood, Austin, Texas
We should not have invaded Iraq. The world is a more dangerous place because we invaded, not less. We have made a mess of Iraq. I say leave ASAP. The place will be in total chaos but us staying there and having our soldiers die every day is just not showing any progress. Be completely gone in 6 months and I want to hear Bush say he made a mistake. I bet that would kill the man. He has never said that. Talk about an ego.
LeRoy Miller, Harvey, Louisiana
Feel free to add your own comments here.
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Just read a very compelling article that debunks all the myths around why we shouldn't leave Iraq:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200512/iraq-withdrawal
Absolutely right now. Actually, the United States made a big mistake in going to what they wanted to call a "War against terrorism". But, as you all should know by now this war had been already planned with some other interests. The relationships with other countries are messed up. Today, around the world the U.S. is seen so bad that even though I’m an immigrant I feel at some point afraid of being here and embarrassed. At least there are some people around the world who know that though we live here not all of us support Mr. Bush and his erroneous self-fish government.
I would love it if we could bring our friends and family members home now. I would like nothing more than for my father-in-law to come home. But that's not possible.
It took the United States several times to write it's own Constitution successfully into the document we hold dear today; we have to realize that writing a Constitution will take time and several attempts before it's right. All of our soldiers, tax monies, and the disdain we've acquired from other countries will all have been in vain if we pull out before Iraq can stand on its own two feet and just reverts back to how it was. I think that would be far more detrimental than what we have now.
I don't think that we should have gone in the first place, but now that we're there, failure is not an option. Many of the soldiers agree in the cause they are there for, others are there simply because their orders sent them there.
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"Dream as though you'll live forever, but live as though there's no tomorrow" --James Dean
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