I have an Iraq 'Exit strategy'.....just EXIT

[mopaul]

i don't get the 'should we stay or should we go'? question. of course we should get the hell out of there. but we've been there all along. saddam was our tool for controlling the area, we supported and trained him for decades. and this is all part of a vast insane plan to conquer the godless arabs and reign them in.

now we have hilary and john kerry and other democrats insisting that we stay in iraq and 'finish the job'. what the fuck IS the job?

some say, 'we should finish what we started'. i didn't start the fucking thing, i wanted nothing to do with it. finishing what we started means thousands more dead people laying around the landscape.

it's a rout, it's a quagmire, it's a shooting gallery, what more can i say? there's no possibility of a u.s. military victory there, they don't want us there, they never did.

it's like 10 people are trapped in a burning building, 9 of them run around in a panic trying to come up with an exit strategy, while the smart one finds the exit.

[truthspeaker]

1. "finish the job" means finish our bases and steal more oil

That's the only job we are engaged in over there, so I don't know what else Clinton and Kerry could mean.

[demnan]

2. I'm sure we will leave in helicopters in the dead of night

and anyone who supported us will be slaughtered, but not just yet. We will have at least two or three years of pure misery and dead, maimed and emotionally destroyed young people. Then they'll have massive protests and will pull out troops for fear of a revolution at home.

Just like Vietnam.

[MSgt213]

3. Why not everybody else seems to doing or thinking of doing just that

[mainer]

4. I'm with you

If we'd left Vietnam years earlier, the end result would have been the same for the Vietnamese. Except for the fact 20,000 American men and countless Vietnamese would still be alive.

Whether we leave now or leave five years from now probably won't make a difference in Iraq. There's still going to be chaos and civil war.

[NNN0LHI]

7. Little correction

There are 58,235 names on the Vietnam War Memorial.

Don

[mainer]

19. Yes, I know ...

But by the time McNamara realized it was hopeless and called it quits, we were only halfway through the total number of American deaths. That's where my 20,000 number came from.

[Ganja Ninja]

5. They have gotten along for thousands of years without us.

They can get along after we leave.

[AndyP]

6. I think this would be a bad strategy

I know we shouldn't be there. But if we bust out now it will only lead to another crappy leader in power. One that will take power by force. I'm not saying that the leader that will be put in place (most likely by us) will be any better, but I think we have a better shot this way.
I think if we bail the rest of the world, especially the arab world will look at us in a (more) negative light. Thinking that we come, screw shit up, then leave without trying to fix it. We went in there and screwed shit up and I think it's our responsibility to fix it whether we like it or not.
Just my $.02

[jonnyblitz]

9. so we should decide who their crappy leader should be?

and they should not be allowed to elect their own crappy leader? OOOOOOOK :eyes:

[AndyP]

11. no no no

Sorry if you misunderstood me, I'm saying that a leader will be put in place, however it may be, voting or tribal agreement or whatever. I think If we leave now I don't think they will have the chance to pick their own crappy leader, one will come to power because he is powerful and has the most guns and everyone fears him (again). And he will most likely be of a group that hates America so we'll be no better off than before, then all of our lives and money will be for naught.

[Brotherjohn]

12. They will not accept any leader arising under those circumstances...

... and the end result will be the same.

They may have to wait until after we leave, but they will rise up against him/her and the likely result will be an Islamic theocracy.

On the one hand, if that is what the people of Iraq want, why should they not have it? Would it be worse than Hussein? If it were akin to Iran, is not Iran making lurches towards democracy on its own?

On the other hand, an actual appeal to the U.N. with sincerity and actions to back it up (perhaps it's too late for that, though) could get the U.N., optimally with a large contingent of troops from Islamic nations, to oversee free and fair elections.

That, at least, has the promise of holding some legitimacy with the Iraqi people.

[NNN0LHI]

10. For those thinking we should stay the question is...

...would you be willing to send your own son or daughter over there?

Don

[Mari333]

13. amen n/t

[Brotherjohn]

8. I thought "the job" was to disarm and remove Saddam Hussein.

Haven't we already done that? (well, the first one was already done, thanks to Gulf War I and the U.N.)

[dweller]

14. and i thought 'the job'

was to steal the oil.

dp

[anarchy1999]

15. It was a crime to go in, why do we stay and continue to commit crimes?

Are we truly a nation of criminals, thugs and thieves? The rest of the world seems to think so, and with good reason. Chalabi, his nephew and Negroponte to run Iraq after June 30, and oh, yes, as of this AM, June 30 is no "magic" date. WTF?

[Mari333]

18. Bush administration trying to save face

and the cost is peoples lives. Arrogant, fucking pricks in the WH, all of them trying to save face and pretend this whole thing isnt a fucking mess, thats what. Idiots, morons, cowards, and criminals.
They are insane, and I am terrified of what can happen. If they keep their ego assaugung, chest thumping ignorant tactics up, this can lead to a world war...the arab nations are angry, the whole world is a mess and living in fear, and there are too many nukes in other countries right now to make me feel comfortable. I am waiting for every country on earth to condemn Bush and his policies, and take the high road. It has to be done. He needs to be brought down by them, before this escalates into WW3. I am terrified of it, and want to run away, but I cant , because when nukes start flying, we are all dead. The world needs to realize that this is what could play out.
We have Israel's Sharon embracing nukes, and a crazy man in the WH who thinks we should all "be dead" someday, and god only knows what the hell he was talking about.
Add to that itchy trigger fingers of kids in Iraq who want to kill everyone to get it over with, or are going insane wishing they could get home, and hating where they are.
The world has to banish Bush, throw him out, call him what he is, and the US populace has to wake the hell up and fast.
we are on the fast track to oblivion otherwise.

[mopaul]

20. saving face, victory with honor, america's duty...bullshit

you are right, it's a bloody mess, but that's exactly what these maniacs want. they've been after it for decades, total chaos in the middle east, wide scale, armageddon, and then haliburton can turn it all into a giant disneyland/mcdonalds.

to think that EVEN ONE american soldier died for this obscene travesty is tragic, but to realize over 700 have died, and several thousand profoundly crippled mentally and physically, and the uncountable thousands of dead innocents in two countries, all for the egos of neo nazis in our own government, blows the mind.

we all feel your pain mari, not as personally of course, but we feel it and we want to stop it.

[Hamlette]

16. this is not Vietnam

it has all the hallmarks of Vietnam but Vietnam was a proxy war between the US and the OTHER godless empire the Soviet Union. Here we are going to let the Muslims survive because they do believe in god. But only if they are moderate.

I am so angry that Bush started this war without international support and based on a series of lies (WMD). Absent those two things I could and probably would support some action in the ME. Although I don't think it will happen, wouldn't you want the rest of the world to come rescue us if the religious right took over the US?

[ex_jew]

17. To "just exit" would be too easy

Bush screwed up so massively that I'm afraid history requires a monumental ass-kicking for the US. Cosmic-scale blunders will have cosmic-scale repercussions. Just wait and see.