The democrats in Congress have been trying to withdraw US troops in Iraq for quite some time. What the democrats don't realize is that withdrawing our troops in Iraq would bring even more chaos to Iraq. The democrats have wanted to pull out our troops because the US populace wants to see an end to the war. To much dismay, the democrats have not spent enough time studying the war. I see myself as a liberal and I am ashamed by the actions of liberal senators and congressmen. The reason why the surge in Iraq has not been working is because the US does not spend enough time in cities once they are stable. As Ahmed S. Hashim explains in his recent tome "Insurgency and Counter-insurgency in Iraq," when US troops leave any given city, the Sunni insurgency or the Shia militias such as the Mahdi army simply move back in. More important, no reconstruction takes place at all within these cities. The way to diminish the military clout of the Sunni insurgency and the Shia militias is to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi populace. The Iraqis want to see new infrastructure and a stable ethnocracy. Iraq will never become a democracy because the Sunnis will not wield enough political clout to make it one. Furthermore, the Bush administration must help Iraq politically. Iraq needs a non-elusive constitution and more experienced Sunni politicians need to be included within the Iraqi government. The Iraqi parliament has recently reached a stalemate and more Sunni politicians could break that stalemate. There will be an end to sectarian violence if the reconstruction process begins and if there is a stable ethnocracy in Iraq. The chances of the reconstruction process beginning and a stable ethnocracy returning to Iraq are slim, but Iraq has a better chance of accomplishing both these daunting tasks if we are still in Iraq. Should we stay or should we go? I’m interested in reading your comments.
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
Should we stay? Hell no. I wish the democrats efforts were stronger and they worked harder to get more republicans on their side to overthrow any veto Bush would throw at them. For once I can say I am happy to be from Indiana because of Richard Lugar a long standing proponent to the Bush administration broke from his party and announced he was fed up with Iraq and the failing policies of the Bush administration.
We are spending 10 billion dollars a month on Iraq, and have thus far spent 770 billion dollars. After 4 years, 770 billion dollars, and 3500+ American men and women dead I am ready to see us depart from this god forsaken place. Iraq was a failure, no Iraq is a failure and is continuing to hurt this country.
“Iraq will never become a democracy because the Sunnis will not wield enough political clout to make it one.”
If Iraq will never become a democracy what are we supposed to do with it? Stay there for forever? No we should leave immediately, I used to feel that we should stay but I have since changed my opinion and believe we need to leave as soon as possible.
The problem was we were never harsh enough with the Iraqi government. We told them we were there to support them from day one, and since then they have made no real efforts to change anything. Why would they? They have the USA, the strongest nation in the world backing it.
We may have helped fuel this civil war, but who is to say that I wasn’t getting close to the breaking point before we even got there. Now we are stuck in the middle of what is most certainly going to be a civil war and we have people like you and Bush wanting us to stay, wanting us to loose more American soldiers.
I say get us the hell out there, today!
First, the war was going to be costly no matter what. I did not support President Bush's invasion in Iraq but we cannot exit Iraq in the same fashion we entered it. Iraq will never be a democracy; it will always be an ethnocracy. You missed the point of my argument. We need to stabilize this ethnocracy by helping Nouri al-Maliki's coalition include more Sunnis within the Iraqi government. More importantly, there needs to be a clear constitution. The Iraqi government has made efforts to stabilize Iraq but since the Bush administration disbanded the Iraqi army from day one, they have had to start from scratch in forming a strong security force. Finally, losing many of our soldiers was inevitable. Valuing our soldiers over the lives of Iraqis is simply appalling.
First of all I understood what you were saying and we held free public elections in Iraq. The people spoke. It is not our fault that Sunnis did not come out in larger numbers and vote. We had troops at every polling station making it somewhat safe. We cannot just fill the parliament with who we want. The Iraqi people spoke and they chose not to elect as many Sunnis as it would take to stablize the country.
The Iraqi government has done nothing significant. They are on vacation right now. It really seems like they are taking the necessary steps to make their country better, doesn't it?
I would be okay with getting a huge percentage of our troops out of Iraq and leaving a couple thousand or so to continue training Iraqi soldiers. That I am okay with, but I am not okay with our whole army being over there fighting for a worthless cause. I will admit Iraq needs security forces, but thats what we should have been doing since day one, not trying to run this country our way, we tried that once, we got a rogue dictator that eventually led to this mess.
Appalling or not I have family over there and I will value the lives of them and American soldiers over Iraqis because I feel we never should have went there to begin with.
I completely agree with you. We shouldn't have gone in in the first place. It's a shame the Bush administration went in without the backing of the international community. Even if the Sunnis voted in large numbers, there wouldn't be many Sunni leaders within the Iraqi government. Keep in mind that the Sunnis are a minority group in Iraq.
Also, how is the Iraqi government supposed to do anything effective with the Mahdi army wielding power in the government and sectarian violence tearing the country apart?
Disbanding the Iraqi army was the worst mistake the Bush administration made. We basically had to start from scratch. Bush did not have much foresight when it came to this war.
Iraq is already in chaos. The people there it seems really do not care about democracy. Democracy will not work if the people don't care. All the Bush admimistration has managed to do in Iraq is spend money that could go to saving Africans from genocide or impoverished Americans, and kill young American men and women. It's obvious nothing is going to change there. It isn't going to become a democracy. It can't until the people take an active interest in their government.
Saying that the Iraqis do not care about their government is probably one of the most ignorant statements I have come across. If you haven't noticed, sectarian violence has been taking place in Iraq because the Sunni insurgents and Shia militia men have the military clout. The Iraqis want a stable government and for the US to begin the reconstruction process. As I have said within my blog post and across other Iraq war blog posts, Iraq WILL NEVER be a democracy. It will be an ethnocracy and it needs to become a stable one.
Thanks for this, I agree completely.
Yes, well, it does seem that we're stuck there for at least the time being. I've not much else to say just yet.
will, it looks to me that your lord and savior bush cares more about buying the million dollars mansion in the caribbean than about the american soldiers, i will tell you, reconstruction in iraq can never happen, because the shareholder/ceo of the blackwater/haliburton thinks that it is too dangerous to reconstruct the buildings, while they spends the american tax dollars money rewarded to them by the contact on lavish hotels and contribute to campaign of your lord and saviors. you want us to stay there until reconstruction is finish, dream on, because those corporation that are suppose to rebuilding iraq think to it is too dangerous to rebuild so they are keeping the money to spend on lavish gift, and still ask for more money. reconstruction in iraq will never be done, it is very simple because the corporation don't really care, and your president couldn't care less about the soldiers.
If you took the time to actually read my post- you'd notice that I'm a liberal. I am also a realistic Wilsonian when it comes to foreign policy (in support of international institutions.) It is still dangerous to rebuild Iraq because US forces do not stay in one area for a long time. Once they are able to do so and commence reconstruction, we can then leave Iraq. I know that Bush doesn't care about our soldiers, he is there for the oil. As I have said MANY times, we cannot leave Iraq in the same fashion we entered it.
It is obvious that the Iraqi people do not want anymore of our help running their government, kind of like the first Americans did when Great Britain was running our country. We didn't want their troops over here..why would Iraqis want our troops in their country? If the situation were reversed and the Iraqis were here in our country, I do believe that us as Americans would go to extremes to get them out of our nation. Who knows what Iraq will be like if our troops leave? Only God does. No one can say that there will be chaos, for all we know, we may see leadership in forming a more stable government, but my point being...Let them do it themselves...ITS NOT OUR PROBLEM!! Let them handle it and please bring our troops home. This situation becomes a personal one because my fiance is in the Marines and currently he is scheduled to go to Iraq in Nov 2008. I don't want to see him go over there number one, and number two I would much rather see him go and fight for something actually threatening to our country.
The same people who tell us it will become even more chaotic in Iraq if we withdraw our troops are the same people who told us it will be a "cake walk", or "3 week war" or how about "mission accomplished"? Why listen to these people?
If you look into it, you will see that Iraq has become exactly what the neocons who started this whole disaster wanted in the first place...chaos. It's divide and conquer, the oldest trick in the book of warfare. It"s a sustained war effort just as Vietnam. Put in place to generate interest for the Fed, and continue our Military Industrial Complex. Any of the "conflicts" we have been involved with since WW II are with third world countries. Its an easy way to unload military surplus and make way for the new. This is world war III, rather I say the "war against third world countries".
Wake up America, if you look around, you will find lies and deception everywhere.