I would pull out of Iraq ASAP

[BallaFaseke]

I don't care what happens to their country. They are better off without us.

Saddam is out of power so let's just get on out there and pull out of the Middle East.


Everyday we are still there makes me sad and angry.

Sorry had to vent.

[leftofthedial]

1. yup

every minute we are there makes things worse in the long run

[KeepItReal]

2. Saddam may not be out of the picture

That may be one of the main reasons why Bush & Co. will not pull out. Imagine them deciding to cut and run, and the next day Saddam is swept back into Bagdad over Chalabi's dead body.

Bush & Co. have to make sure Saddam is dead and the Baath party can't regain control before saying "Mission Accomplished" again and bringing most troops home.

[Isome]

3. Make sure Saddam is dead...

It could take awhile to find the body, if he's already dead. If he's not, it would be a shame if we again assasinate another country's leader (former leader in this case).

[leftofthedial]

5. BFD

Saddam (and the Baathists), the Shiites, the Kurds, the foreign Muslim radicals, the Iranians and all are going to have to fight it out among themselves anyway.

I say we should be compelled by international law and ethics to nominally return control of the country to the Baathists anyway. We had no right to invade their country. As awful as the Baathists may be, it is BAD precedent for us to invade a country just to remove a bad government from power.

[KeepItReal]

10. I agree we had no business going in there in the first place

Bush and Co. will only pull out if there is a face saving way to do it. There doesn't appear to be one, so they'll figure out a way to do a phased withdrawal and hand over to Iraqis someday.

Then again, if they engineer another U.S. Presidential election verdict for Bush, they'd have 4 more years to figure the Iraq thing out.

[Holly]

4. Time to bring them home

If you were an Iraqi, wouldn't you prefer an objective third party to help oversee the return of your sovereignty.The U.S. cannot continue to occupy this country.Time to pull out, and negotiate with the U.N. Let the Iraqi's handle the rebuilding process.

[cliss]

6. I'm with you, Balla.

What the hell do they need us for? They have fellow muslims as neighbors.

Stan Goff wrote the same thing: we just need to get out. They will be scrutinized by the UN, anyway.

[PurityOfEssence]

7. That simply won't happen

Like it or not, it's a national-macho thing, and to a certain degree it has to be. We cannot show the rest of the world that we "can't take it" and will cut and run when meeting adversity. We'll get our asses kicked everywhere for a very long time.

I hate this thinking. I hate this administration. I hate the whole thing, but regardless of that, there are so many in government and business with the same take that it guarantees us staying. Besides all that, these fucks want that damned oil and they want complete say-so over its exploitation; that's the end of that.

It's like joining a gang: they want you to commit a crime too, so you're tied to them forever. The neo-cons want it to be a Christian war and a war where all Americans are targets; thus we won't be able to dissent, since we're all on the firing line too. Deee-pressing.

[Isome]

9. We'll get our asses kicked

Is that not the most juvenile rationale you've ever heard?! It reminds me of school days... high school or junior high.

[Resistance Is Futile]

8. What've you got against the Syrians, Iranains and Cubans?

Pull out of Iraq and the Likudniks will invade the next country on the campaign list.

[RandomUser]

11. You broke it, you bought it.

We need to make sure things come out right in Iraq. We need to hand over the political reconstruction to the UN, and the security situation to the IP. But we can do either yet. Bush will have a hard time getting the UN to go in and bail him out, and the IP is not up to speed yet. They are not better off if we leave and send them into a civil war.

[Adjoran]

12. Don't make a bad situation worse

We can't go into Iraq, depose the government, and then say, "Okay, folks, you're on your own now!"

To leave now would guarantee civil war, and more suffering for the Iraqi people for years to come. Like it or not, we owe them at least a stable environment in which to form their own government.

We have that obligation, after invading the country. We can agree that Bush is responsible for the events in Iraq, the war and the postwar, but it is no more moral to leave a situation where thousands will surely die violent deaths without trying to prevent that outcome, than it is to create the situation in the first place.

We do not have to agree with the damage done in our name to recognize our moral obligation to fix it.