Vote, declare victory, and come home

[Barrett808]

Posted on Mon, Jan. 10, 2005
Vote, declare victory, and come home
By JOSEPH L. GALLOWAY
Knight Ridder Newspapers

There may be 50 ways to leave your lover, but there may be only one good way out of the deepening disaster that is Iraq: Hold the elections on Jan. 30, declare victory and begin leaving.

Anything less, any more “staying the course,” and we’re likely doomed to an even bloodier and more costly defeat in a country divided along ethnic and religious fault lines and headed toward civil war.

A large number of Americans, perhaps even a majority, believe that pulling out now would lead to an American defeat that undermines U.S. credibility and endangers the global war on terrorism. They worry it would create either an Afghan-style terrorist haven in Iraq or an anti-American Shiite regime that would only be a new source of instability in the Mideast, a region vital to American interests.

The problem is that there is no way we can win — defeat the insurgents and install a stable, democratic, friendly government — and bad things are going to happen anyway. There is no way Americans are willing to pay the price even of stalemate, never mind an unattainable victory.

That would mean half a million American soldiers on the ground, maybe more, and a new draft to find enough people for the force. It would mean an escalating drain of hundreds of billions more dollars, and a bloodbath on both sides.

Why can’t we win? Because we charged in with false premises and bogus assumptions. Because for every insurgent we kill, two or three more join the cause. Because even our advertised victories — like Fallujah, where we apparently had to destroy the city in order to save it, or Samarra or Ramadi — only turned the entire Sunni population against the United States and its Iraqi allies.

(more)

http://www.thestate.com/mld/state/news/opinion/10607233.htm

[StClone]

1. I am for the Iraq war now

It proves that Bush is at best a poor chess player and at worst a complete idiot. He pulls out of Iraq and he admits a wrong and defeat. He stays and the long death sentence of Iraq on his legacy will occur. I now like the Iraq war as a clear indicator of Bush's demise.

[midnight armadillo]

2. The US cannot leave - why? Oil!

The entire point of the war was to secure the US energy supply for the next century - a withdrawal would put that into jeopardy, to say the least. Therefore, as long as Bush is in office the US will stay in Iraq with as many troops as they can muster.