Why It's Time To Bring American Troops Home

[Barrett808]

Why It's Time To Bring American Troops Home
by H.D.S. Greenway
Published on Tuesday, November 22, 2005 by the Boston Globe

Having come recently from Iraq, I find myself reluctantly agreeing with Representative John Murtha of Pennsylvania. American troops have become ''a catalyst for violence," and therefore more part of the problem than the solution.

I used to believe that, no matter what one thought of the war, Americans had to stay to keep Iraq from disintegration and civil war. If I thought the United States could prevent either, I would say stay the course. But I believe now that we no longer control events in Iraq and that in the end we cannot hold the country together.

Nor can we prevent civil war, which is already gathering in the shadows, as evidenced by bombed mosques, secret torture chambers, and the victims of death squads found in the desert. Only the Iraqis themselves can come up with the necessary compromises and accommodations to keep Iraq whole.

I now believe, as former defense secretary Melvin Laird recently wrote: ''Our presence is what feeds the insurgency, and our gradual withdrawal would feed the confidence and the ability of average Iraqis to stand up to the insurgency."

(more)

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/1122-23.htm