Do you support this exit strategy from Iraq?

[Senior citizen]

DUer Q posted this exit strategy in another thread:

Call for UN Peacekeepers to replace U.S. troops, and set up a reparations program to put Iraqis to work rebuilding their own country.

I like it -- what do you think?

[Totally Committed]

1. You live in a dream world!

The UN??? DO you realize that half of the American people have been bamboozled into thinking the UN is irrelevant and should be abolished?

NATO, maybe... but it'll never be the UN. Never in a million years.

TC

[LittleClarkie]

5. Well you just wait until John Bolton gets in there

He'll fix them guys up quick! THEN they'll help us, I reckon. Right after they're done helping us invate Syria.

:sarcasm:

Yeah, folks, don't worry. I'll take care of the UN reeeal good.

[Senior citizen]

6. Nice dream, isn't it?

Half the American people were bamboozled into thinking that Sadaam had WMDs. Most of them no longer believe it.

Half the American people were bamboozled into thinking that our mission in Iraq was already accomplished when the chimp said so. Most of them no longer believe it.

So please forgive me for dreaming that the non-reality-based half of the American people are starting to be a lot harder to bamboozle.

[blm]

2. UN peacekeepers won't go in until there is greater stabilization which

won't happen until there is a shared effort by other countries (who we now know HAVE been willing to do more but Bush turned them down) and a declaration that the US will NOT have permanent bases and will not seek control over any of Iraq's resources.

Then the UN will step in.

[Senior citizen]

9. You're probably right.

But all the poll asked was if you personally would support asking them. Whether or not they'd agree is a whole 'nother poll.

[blm]

10. I'm a practical thinker who is solution-oriented. n/t

,

[politicaholic]

3. The peace keepers are too busy in Sudan...oh...wait...

I'm sorry, but that's not an exit strategy. Bush is attempting to disolve the UN and is going to appoint John "Hatchetman" Bolton to do it whether the legislature likes it or not.

There is no way the UN is going to NOT leave the US floundering in Iraq. The UN could really care less. Their peacekeeping force is as impotent as Bob Dole proven by the fact that there is documented genocide in both Sudan and Zimbabwe and they do the least possible above doing nothing.

[Senior citizen]

11. Too true.

But I predict that if Bush succeeds in dissolving the U.N., at least 95% of the nations in the world will start their own and not permit U.S. membership. Maybe Pakistan, Poland, and the Phillipines will stick with us, but I'll bet that England, Canada, and Australia won't. They're such mavericks that they even recognize the World Court, Kyoto, and the Convention on Torture.

Maybe what the world needs is a stronger unifying body that won't be as impotent. And if we're a major cause of their impotence, it is nice that all they have to do is get rid of us and they won't even have to buy the pills.

[politicaholic]

18. The UN is fine I think...

It has weak leadership and drags under the weight of bureaucracy, but it's better than the alternative. I do agree that there is some major renovation needed, but if John Bolton were to succeed in euthanizing the UN, the only thing that would survive is some sort of world economic union.

With the backing of corporations rather than bureaucracies, a new world economic collaboration would be able to run more efficiently to finally strip the earth of every mineral, plant, and animal of worth for profit.

I have no doubt that England and Australia would have no problem jumping right on board with the US for that kind of unholy union. Australia is full of even more right wing zealots than here. Rupert "Agenda? Never!" Murdock has been brain washing them far longer than he has the American sheeple. Canada would reluctantly jump on the band wagon, but leap they would.

I remember at 9 years old wondering why I couldn't work like mom instead of going to school. You never know, that chance might once again come back to America's hallowed shores.

[Q]

4. The point is that NO ONE is working on any kind of plan...

...to really do what's right for the Iraqi people OR the American troops put in harm's way for a lie.

The troops have to go. The Iraqi people don't want them there. Let's put together a plan to replace them with an entity with a NON-MILITARY goal in mind. That is...to keep the peace and rebuild Iraq.

Let's put the BILLIONS OF DOLLARS currently going to Friends of Bush Contractors and give it to the Iraqi people. Let THEM rebuild their own country. Allow them their independence and dignity.

And, oh yeah: impeach the traitor Bush.

[KeepItReal]

7. UN may not be an option there

Any non-Iraqi entity trying to keep order or govern Iraq is just going to probably be viewed as a proxy for Bush & Co.

[Q]

8. How about just PEACEKEEPERS...

...The point wasn't about the UN. There could be an international coalition of peacekeepers. But first there must be an effort in this direction.

American soldiers are dying for a lie and Iraqis are dying because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

We can do better than this.

[Yupster]

12. UN Peacekeepers

may be willing to "keep the peace".

So after there's been peace for six months or a year, we can call them and they may respond.

That's not particularly helpful before there's peace though.

[Senior citizen]

14. Actually, I don't expect civil war to break out if we withdraw.

Quite the opposite. I could be entirely wrong, but I suspect that if we withdrew the Iraqis would be so busy rejoicing, celebrating their victory in ousting yet another invader, and rebuilding, that they'd forget their religious, political, and tribal differences for a while--possibly even as long as six months.

Maybe somebody more familiar with the Iraqi pattern of ousting all invaders over the past 2,000 years can tell me if I'm just dreaming, or if this is what usually happens.

[seaglass]

17. You should read some Juan Cole...

http://www.juancole.com/

"Likewise, I agree with the Egyptians that a precipitate US withdrawal would very likely spark the sectarian war that al-Hakim warned about. I also agree with the al-Akhbar editorial that it is time for the US to bring in the international community. The Egyptians know Iraq and know the region. The Americans, who have shown themselves incredibly ignorant of both, should listen carefully to what they are saying."

[Yupster]

22. I do expect Civil War

the government in power will be seen by the more religious groups as a US puppet and they will send their car bombs at them just as happily as they do against us, and they will be more successful in doing it.

The defense will not be the government which has no power itself, but the Shia warriors which will take the fight to the Sunnis.

I see a Civil War.

[davepc]

13. Where are these magical UN peacekeepers going to come from?

[Senior citizen]

15. I assume they'd have to be from countries

that weren't part of the invasion. And if we withdrew from the U.N., or if we managed to dissolve it and the new "UN" was formed without us, I suspect that the peace-loving countries of the world would assess themselves to respond to genocides and wars of aggression. Without our veto, I think they'd be a lot more effective.

[davepc]

16. Most nations don't have the military capability to do any such thing

They lack the logistical ability, and the size of their armed forces precludes them from sending multiple thousand men units on foreign expeditions.

The only way anything like that could happen is if many countries significantly increased the %GNP they spend on defence to upgrade their forces.

Hell, Europe couldn't stop the war in Kosovo, and needed the United States to supply the bulk of the 'peacekeepers' and almost all of the air-war military capability.

[goodhue]

19. UN in, US out

Soungs good to me.

And vaguely familiar.

[Clarkie1]

20. Not enough U.N. peacekeepers with the skills to provide adequate security

for the Iraqis to have a chance at rebuilding their country. I'd like to see more U.N. peacekeepers on the ground, and I'd l,ike to see more reparations and Iraqis put to work rebuilding their country, but without a U.S. presence there U.N. peacekeepers would just be sitting ducks (and might be anyway).

[Greyhound]

21. Give the $ to Iraqi Companies that hire Iraqi workers...

that will now have the means to support their families and will no longer have motivation to join an insurgency. The Iraqi police/military will take care of the foreign terrorists that are there primarily to kill us.
Of course this requires two things that'll never happen. Amerika has to take responsibility for committing this heinous act. None of our campaign contributors will make any $ on it.

[Zynx]

23. What UN Peacekeepers? UN troops almost always = US troops

[Hippo_Tron]

24. I posted a similar thread a few months ago, the UN would just laugh at us

I'm pretty sure that they want nothing to do with Iraqmire.

[IndianaGreen]

25. The UN is not popular among Iraqis

Remember that the UN was a party to the sanctions imposed on Iraq at the end of the Gulf War which led to the deaths of a million children and the suffering of untold others.

It was no accident that the UN headquarters in Baghdad was among the first targets of the insurgents a few months after the fall of Baghdad in 2003.

Iraqis will view any foreign troops in Iraq as occupiers. The only decent thing for us to do is to withdraw from Iraq immediately and unconditionally and let the Iraqi people get their country back.

Justice demands that we pay war reparations to Iraq and that we prosecute and punish American civilian and military officials responsible for the criminal invasion of Iraq.