To say we must stay in Iraq to save it from chaos is a lie

[NNN0LHI]

http://politics.guardian.co.uk/comment/story/0,9115,1574819,00.html

This is a fiasco without parallel in recent British history. Iraqis must run their country: we've made enough mess of it already

Simon Jenkins
Wednesday September 21, 2005
The Guardian

Don't be fooled a second time. They told you Britain must invade Iraq because of its weapons of mass destruction. They were wrong. Now they say British troops must stay in Iraq because otherwise it will collapse into chaos.

This second lie is infecting everyone. It is spouted by Labour and Tory opponents of the war and even by the Liberal Democrat spokesman, Sir Menzies Campbell. Its axiom is that western soldiers are so competent that, wherever they go, only good can result. It is their duty not to leave Iraq until order is established, infrastructure rebuilt and democracy entrenched. snip

The 150,000 foreign troops on Iraqi soil are overwhelmingly committed to self-protection. They do not do law and order any more. Power is finding its new locus, in the mafias, sheikhdoms, militias and warlords that flourish amid anarchy. Where there is no security, the gunman is always king.

The alleged reason for occupying Iraq was to build security and democracy. We have dismantled the first and failed to construct the second. Iraq is a fiasco without parallel in recent British policy. Now we are told that we must "stay the course" or worse will befall. This is code for ministers refusing to admit a mistake and hoping someone else will after they are gone. By then the Kurds will be more detached, the Sunnis more enraged and the Shias more fundamentalist. A hundred British soldiers will have died.

America left Vietnam and Lebanon to their fate. They survived. We left Aden and other colonies. Some, such as Malaya and Cyprus, saw bloodshed and partition. We said rightly that this was their business. So too is Iraq for the Iraqis. We have made enough mess there already.

[ixion]

1. And you know, it's really just common sense...

There is ample historical precedent for leaving Iraq and allowing them to deal with their own affairs.

The simple fact, however, is that the current administration has a need for Iraq (blood money and oil), and the best way to keep both flowing is to let chaos reign. In my opinion, this is the real reason for 'staying the course'.

Stay the course.

Forgive me if I fail to find logic in that statement, but I've yet to drink the Kool-Aid®.

[Jacobin]

2. Foreign troops are the Problem, not the Solution

How that is not obvious to everyone by now is puzzling to me.

They need to be allowed to sort it out themselves and surely the civil war now raging will increase when we leave, until a leader is chosen. The 'democratic' process we have attempted to impose on them is not something that the Iraqis have implemented and is tainted by our imposing it on them. Accordingly, it appears improbable it will be embraced by Iraqis, but only by republicrats in the U.S. who seem to admire it so.

[acmavm]

3. But we're dealing with two administrations (so to speak) that will not

EVER admit that they were wrong (intentionally) and that their quest to take over the oil fields is never gonna succeed.

But then, when did bush** ever admit he was wrong (though it's one of his only consistent traits)? And when did he ever admit failure (although everything he's ever touched has turned to shit)?