Here's a question

[Casandra]

There seems to be a lot of division on how to exit Iraq. Many are taking it for granted that the majority of the American people want a time-line over a period of 16-18 months. I don't know who these people are (the majority) but I wonder tonight, if I can open up that question to all of you. Which do you prefer?

Secure a security force to watch our backs as we leave 'NOW'.. Walk, don't run but GET OUT! Everyone, including all the civilians and all the 'criminal-thug contractors'. As it will take time to get out 160K troops and who knows how many others, a steady walk out could still take a few months.. but the intent is to begin NOW and don't stop until we are all...all...gone!

Set up a time-line, follow it as much as possible. As things start looking like they're going to erupt again, turn some around.. back and forth.. excuses upon excuses... This could take years and even after the troops are gone, the thug-contractors are still there, stirring things up.

What will happen when we leave?? Leave it to the Iraqi's. It's their country; they'll sort it out. Can't be more killing than we're already doing and have already done.. My opinion, GET OUT NOW!.. everyone..

Your opinion?

[magellan]

1. I agree with you

We're only prolonging the inevitable. And staying there forever isn't an option; even if we impose a draft we don't have the revenue. We'll go the way of the Soviet Union if we don't get clever quick.

[gateley]

2. I think it's the logistics more than anything else at this point.

If I'm correct in my recollection, the way out is through Kuwait but I don't remember what the timeline was.

It also includes the equipment and other things that we don't necessarily think of when we're focused on the Get Them Out Now timeline.

We owe the Iraqi people big time - we have a responsibility, but we certainly don't need the troops there to do whatever it is we can do.

But I can't help but think we won't get everybody out -- OIL.

AND, may I take this opportunity to rant that if they had TRIED Biden's exit strategy which was passed TWICE and even signed by Bush -- if they had implemented it, we'd have a lot more troops home now, and be a lot closer to getting them all out. :grr:

[dubeskin]

3. I think the way to go is a 1-year timetable

An immediate and complete pullout could cause even more devastating effects, unpredicatable ones. As much as I disagree with our presence there, if we left, the little security we WERE providing will completely alter the struggle and the power struggle will change. I think that x amounts of troops a month while simoltaneously participating in diplomatic negotiations should do it.

Granted, this is all just a simple opinion. I don't know the exact logistics of the invasion and all that is actually involved, but I think a slow year long pullout would suffice.

[Richard Steele]

4. We've screwed Iraq so badly, there are no "GOOD" options for our further involvement.

There are no "good options" at all.

We took a very stable, progressive and pro-Western dictatorship
and turned it into a hellhole of rubble and disease so BLEAK
that centuries-dead MEDIEVAL concepts of xenophobic tribalism
have re-sprouted like weeds, and taken hold like Kudzu in a
Carolina highway shoulder.

The dJinni is out of the bottle, and there just isn't any way
to un-fuck this pooch.

There is no "good" option, but the "least bad" would be to get the heck OUT NOW
and stop making things WORSE.

We can't "un-fuck" the pooch, but we can certainly STOP FUCKING IT.

[Breeze54]

5. Stop the funding and Get Out NOW!!!

The Vietnam War, also known as the Second Indochina War, the Vietnam Conflict,
and, in Vietnam, the American War, occurred from 1959 to April 30, 1975.

snip-->

The end of the War, 1973-1975

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vietnam_War#The_end_of_the_War.2C_1973-1975

snip-->

The Paris Peace Accord, agreed between communist Le Duc Tho and Henry Kissinger, and reluctantly signed in January 1973 by President Thieu, produced a ceasefire and allowed for the exchange of prisoners of war.

The U.S. midterm elections in 1974 brought in a new Congress dominated by Democrats who were much more willing to confront the president on the war. Congress immediately voted in restrictions on funding and military activities to be phased in through 1975 and to culminate in a total cutoff of funding in 1976

Ford desperately asked Congress for funds to assist and re-supply the South before it was overrun.
Congress refused.

Fall of Saigon

The song "White Christmas" was broadcast as the final signal for withdrawal. In the early morning
hours of April 30, the last U.S. Marines evacuated the embassy by helicopter, as civilians swamped
the perimeter and poured into the grounds. Many of them had been employed by the Americans and were
left to their fate.