Bring Out Your Dead
- Wade
Twelve U.S. soldiers killed in Iraq yesterday. More U.S. troops have been killed after Dubya landed on an aircraft carrier and declared major military operations over than before it. June 30th has been set as the "pullout" date of allied troops, but recently Senate Republicans have said that date may fall by the wayside; Richard Lugar even suggested that it may be years before U.S. troops are extracted from the current peacekeeping mission in Iraq.
Leading to my question: Why are we there?
The reason, or at least the given reason, is that Saddam Hussein had been stockpiling biological weapons, and was building the infrastructure for nuclear weapons. We're now learning that claim was false. Can you fault the Bush administration for receiving faulty intelligence. No. Can you fault them for not waiting to be more certain before invading? Yes. As I recall, that's what most of the rest of the civilized world was hoping for.
As much as I'd like to see it, I don't think we can leave Iraq at this point, and June may even be too early. The coalition forces have blown up a country and nearly everything about it. To leave now would leave common Iraqi citizens potentially in a worse place than they were under Hussein. We started this mess, we ought to stay there until it's cleaned up. With the recent fighting between Sunni insurgents and remaining troops, it's looking like this won't be a brief stay. I wonder if the administration was picturing things differently?
I hope I don't come off as unpatriotic. Common Iraqi citizens were undeservedly suffering under Hussein, and if the U.S. and its allies can quell these current uprisings Iraqis will have a much-improved quality of life. But, really... there are a lot of places in the world where citizens are repressed. There are a lot of places in the world that may have weapons that will harm not only U.S. citizens, but the entire globe. Why did we pick Iraq?
Draw your own conclusions.
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