What does "finishing the job" in Iraq mean to you?

[NNN0LHI]

I keep hearing the phrase "we can't leave Iraq until we finish the job" repeated over and over again on the TV and also many here at DU post the same thing here but that is as far as it ever goes. I will be honest. I don't know what a "finished job in Iraq" is going to look like. I don't have a clue to be honest with you. Does anyone?

Don

[placton]

1. Leaving.

We will never "finish the job" ie, leave a peaceful western style democracy.

[rogerashton]

2. leave the place stable enough

that it won't be the next Afghanistan/Somalia.

Unfortunately, we are not going in that direction. How to do it? Not the way we are going about it now.

[bryant69]

15. Yep

This is it--that's one of the many many reasons we need President Kerry in; he can patch up relations with other nations and bring in the UN.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[argonne]

3. When we consume all the oil.

App. 50 years.

[EV1Ltimm]

4. when i hear "finish the job"

i immediately think of getting the traffic lights in baghdad working, stablizing the electric infrastructure and getting clean water to homes.

[BOSSHOG]

5. Something the next administration will have to do!

[leftchick]

6. The US can not finish any job in Iraq....

Unless we want to bomb until no one is left. It is now Iraq-nam and there is nothing the US can get control of. It is a viscous cycle that will culminate in a civil war with our troops stuck in the middle once the Shiites get the word from Sistani to take their country back. That will happen sooner rather than later. I imagine "finish the job" is the usual empty rhetoric spewing from the mis-administration to placate the murikans.

[Mandate My Ass]

18. Bingo

That sums it up perfectly.

[atreides1]

7. Define Job

I've heard the same thing, but no one can define what exactly the "job" is.

At first it was locating WMD's, then liberating the Iraqi people, now it's bringing "democracy" to Iraq

Maybe finishing the job means getting as much unmetered oil as the coalition authority can before the UN starts an audit of where all
the money from oil sales has gone.

I'm not really sure, they keep changing the definition, of what the job is.

[G_j]

8. getting the hell out!

and turning over control to the UN.

[Jacobin]

9. I think of the naivete of Vietnam hawks

Some president down the road will have to bite the bullet and pull out, after tens of thousands of American lives are lost and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are dead, and over a trillion dollars squandered. We got up to 55,000 Americans dead and 350,000 wounded in Vietnam before we were run out.

How do you invade a fire ant nest, convince them to become something that they are not and do not want to become and not get stung?

IraqNam. Hell, they are even doing the Vietnamization thingy.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

10. When they finally eradicate evil in that savage nation and

get them to sing the pledge of allegiance without the phrase "allahu akbar" in it.

[ACK]

11. Ok ... here is my idea

1. Give real concessions to our allies and the UN and try to internationalize the effort. Reduce American troop deployment by the exact amounts of new foreign troops.

2. Get basic utilities and power working and then get the contractors the hell out of there.

3. Fake it. As soon as the infrastructure is any kind of reasonable shape you hold elections and let the dice fall where they may.

4. Get the hell out. The final step is after the first hastily called election you move troops out as quick as possible.

Take this as a lesson learned on using unilateral force.


_

[rogerashton]

19. That's realistic!

n/t

[xchrom]

12. nobody knows

cause we're not asking the iraqis.
and chalabi, i'm sorry, is not in that loop.
the u.s. is an occupier and that's the only ''job'' we can do right now -- our hands are tied{so to speak}.
we have acted like crazy people and as crazy people we have created an insane situation.

[bloom]

13. The military

is apparently training Iraquis. Around Fallujah - it's the only job in town and that is the only reason they are taking the job.

I could see the US trying to get out (or at least getting out of the law and order business in towns and cities) and leaving it to the Iraquis with the result being the worst chaos ever. (I can't imagine the military abandoning the oil fields that they saved over everything and everyone else, however - unless they had no choice).

[mdmc]

14. McDonald's and Coca cola

Anything else is uncivilized.

[BabsSong]

16. It's like one lonely little guy trying to plug up a Hoover Dam that just

sprouted a zillion holes----the job is done when he drowns.

[greatauntoftriplets]

17. They never intend to leave.

Part of the invasion's goal was to have the real estate to maintain military bases in the Middle East over the long term. Now that the US has destabilized the Middle East, Kery -- if elected -- won't be able to dismantle those. gotta protect that oil.

[leftofthedial]

20. no one knows

my idea is to pull the military out immediately, stop trying to establish a Vichy government, let the Iraqis sort it all out. this will not be a pretty process.

Then, when the smoke clears, give them money and assistance in rebuilding their society.