So who are the "Good Guys" in Iraq these days?

[Armstead]

For three years we were told that we had to fight "the enemy" in Iraq.

The Shiites are killing the Sunnis. The Sunnis are killing the Shiites. Factions within each side are killing each other. And both sides are killing US soldiers.

Then you've got Al Quadeh who seems to be killing anyone within range.

If the Shiites win it's a victory for Iran. If the Sunnis win it's a victory for the Saudis, and gives the Wahabbis a leg up.

Can someone tell me again who we're defending against whom? I just want to know who we're supposed to be rooting for these days.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

1. the innocents

especially the children.

that's who I'm rooting for.

[Armstead]

13. That goes without sayting

The people who aren't trying to use violence to settle scores are the victims.

But the problem is who are we protecting them from? This war was sold to America as a battle against a specific evil -- Sadaam and his government.

Now that that focus of evil is gone, the problem has become a multi-headed hydra.

[radwriter0555]

2. The innocents? What are any of the Iraqis guilty of? What on earth did they ever do

to deserve this genocide and horror?

Absolutely nothing. Not a single one of them. It's not the business of the American people to concern themselves with who the good guys are. The only mission the US has in Iraq is to leave and let the Iraqis sort it out for themselves.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

14. Well...

...some of them appear to be guilty of beheading and torturing people.

[radwriter0555]

18. It's called FIGHTING BACK against the people who invaded their homes and land.

What would YOU do if a nation attacked your homes, killed your family, destroyed your life and your cities? For no real reason?

The iraqis are entitled to exist.

[Cessna Invesco Palin]

22. Iraqis are killing each other...

...not just killing Americans. Some of it is justifiable as defending homes, families, and neighbourhoods, but what do you call blowing up the al-Askariya mosque in Samarra? Or lobbing mortars into a neighbourhood because its residents come from a different religous sect or tribe? Some of these actions now border on ethnic cleansing. There is no justification for such actions, just as there is no justification for what we have done. The people doing these things are not nice people. We are the ones who created the situation which has given these bad people the real power in Iraq. We are responsible for creating this situation, yes - that does not absolve the other bad actors in Iraq of responsibility for their own actions.

[radwriter0555]

23. Ask the shi'ites and the kurds, the ones who are bent on exterminating the Sunnis.

The sunnis are fighting back, the problem is, the US is on the side of the Shi'ites, who bush installed to power.

Bit of a pickle, isn't it?

The only solution is to leave and let them figure it out for themselves.

[Armstead]

15. Iraq raises a much bigger moral dilemma

Unfortunately, Iraq is not the only country in the world suffering from this kind of thing. Darfur, Burma, etc.

Can we morally stand by while genocides and atrocities take place? Or is it our responsibility to help stop it?

The problem with the Iraq War, IMO, is that the current administration perverted the idea of positive humanitarian interventon, intervention, and used it for cynical purposes in Iraq. That has discredited the actual concept.

No easy answers to that one.

[radwriter0555]

19. Why should more US troops die for the misery they've caused? The iraqis can sort

it out among themselves. Should more US troops die for the guilt that the US feels over being duped, used and screwed by the bush regime?

The ONLY solution is to just pack up and leave.

[RoyGBiv]

3. There are no good guys ...

There are only people trying to survive.

[pa28]

4. This mission is corrupt at the center and it appears the last shreds of order are gone.

I'm not sure who the "good guys" are. Maybe they don't exist as a category.

There are sincere people in Iraq still. Iraqis, Americans, soldiers, journalists, relief workers. Hopefully the don't give up on trying to help where they can despite being bombed, threatened, shot at and exiled from their own neighborhoods. Chaos and genocide can erode character pretty quickly.

[GreenZoneLT]

5. That settle it among themselves idea. Darfur and Bosnia, too?

I don't know what the deal is with people screaming for total U.S. withdrawal and isolation from Iraq. What should we do if that triggers genocide (worse than the current genocide)? Since we caused the instability, don't we have some moral obligation to help fix it?

There are a lot of good guys in Iraq. They're the vast majority of people here who don't carry a gun. It only takes a couple of percent of people committed to violence to cause chaos.

[Disturbed]

6. "don't we have some moral obligation to help fix it?

Kucinich 10 point plan

1. The United States must ask the United Nations to manage the oil assets of Iraq until the Iraqi people are self-governing.

2.The United Nations must handle all the contracts: No more Halliburton sweetheart deals, No contracts to Bush Administration insiders, No contracts to campaign contributors. All contracts must be awarded under transparent conditions.

3. The United States must renounce any plans to privatize Iraq. It is illegal under both the Geneva and the Hague Conventions for any nation to invade another nation, seize its assets, and sell those assets. The Iraqi people, and the Iraqi people alone must have the right to determine the future of their country's resources.

4. The United States must ask the United Nations to handle the transition to Iraqi self-governance. The UN must be asked to help the Iraqi people develop a Constitution. The UN must assist in developing free and fair elections.

5. The United States must agree to pay for what we blew up.

6. The United States must pay reparations to the families of innocent Iraqi civilian noncombatants killed and injured in the conflict.

7. The United States must contribute financially to the UN peacekeeping mission.

8. The United Nations, through its member nations, will commit 130,000 peacekeepers to Iraq on a temporary basis until the Iraqi people can maintain their own security.

9. UN troops will rotate into Iraq, and all US troops will come home.

10. The United States will abandon policies of "preemption" and unilateralism and commit to strengthening the UN.

[madokie]

7. US being the ones who broke it is there anything we can do to fix it. I ask

at this point I wonder if our aid would be better appreciated if it was in the form of money and help with reconstruction. Now we seem to have only a gun to offer, my way or the hiway type deal.

[Warren Stupidity]

12. Small typo there:

"Since we caused the instability", I think you meant "Since we are causing the instability".

Then your question "don't we have some moral obligation to help fix it?" makes sense and is easy to answer. Yes we have a moral obligation to stop causing the instability. We need to get out of Iraq and stop meddling in Iraqi affairs.

We cannot fix it by controlling Iraq, as we are the cause of the problem and we cannot control Iraq. Your argument is completely circular, you just, like so many others, remain willfully blind to its obvious contradiction.

[Hippo_Tron]

8. Which gives me an idea of how to solve this, give the Sunni portion of Iraq to Saudi Arabia...

The Shiite part to Iran. Err the Kurds are a bit of a problem though. If we give them their own country it'll probably be overrun by someone in the region. Turky probably won't take them, either. DOH!

But seriously, Saudi Arabia and Iran going at it with each other wouldn't be the worst thing for US interests. I just wish there was somewhere we could send the refugees to but I don't think anyone will take them.

[Warren Stupidity]

9. The Kurds. nt.

[bigtree]

10. The Iraqis

[Warren Stupidity]

11. Corollary:not us. nt.

[BoneDaddy]

16. The very nature

of muslims in that area are based in hardcore tribalism. As there is a void of a powerbase right now, each faction are vying for control. The Shia remember the massacres by Saddam and each faction is being backed by a larger group, Sunni= Saudi Arabia vs Shia= Iran.

I don't know if a "good guy" label could be given to anyone as this conflict has made devils out of both sides. When you turn on the tube and see 60 people wiped out daily it is hard to find the good anywhere.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

17. These people...

From an Iraqi blogger now a student in the U.S.

http://twentyfourstepstoliberty.blogspot.com/

Today, while I’m enjoying my time here, I got this email from my cousin in Baghdad:

“As for us, I’m sure you get our news. Everyone is waiting for their turn to die. Life here is getting worse by the day. Tomorrow, we will yield for today. Schools and universities are not working. The government employees are barely making their way to their jobs…. Pray for us maybe God could save us because it is becoming impossible to live anymore. We have no other choice other than waiting for God to notice what is happening to us and help.”

[Javaman]

20. define "good'...(he said in a cheeky sort of way) lol nt

[leftofthedial]

21. nobody.

maybe a few civilians who don't have a "side"

[On the Road]

24. The People Working for a Nonviolent End to the Chaos