It's Time
Another Ten Marines from the 2nd Marine Division were killed and 11 wounded by a roadside bomb near Fallujah. This is more than a year after the war was supposedly over in Iraq.
The Iraqis have held their elections. They have their own fledgling military and police force. Our own President wants to assure us all is going as planned, yet alternative news sources show that it is a complete mess over there. Our troops being over there is encouraging more violence against the Iraqi civilians. Reports that up to 80% of the Iraqis want our troops out of their country show we have overstayed our "welcome".
Think way back into our own US history books. Part of the protest the colonist had was being forced to put up with the British troops who were there to protect them from the Natives whom the colonists were provoking antagonism. The colonists did not want to pay extra taxes to support the troops who were there for their own protection and did not want them lounging about their homes because there was nowhere else to put them up. Meanwhile, the troops were taking far too many liberties with the situation and taking advantage of the hospitality of the guests. Pretty soon, the colonists just wanted these troops out of their land. Sure, it was their fellow British soldier, but they wanted their own soldiers on their own turf to play by their own rules.
What happened next? The colonists got together and decided they could do better. Without much of an organized army, not much money, not much leadership or support from the rest of the world other than well wishes, they decided to take on the soldiers and start their own country. It wasn't easy. It wasn't pretty. Many people died in the process. As a result, we have the United States today.
Today, the Iraqis have a fledgling democracy. If a democracy is to thrive, there comes a point in time when THEY need to cut the apron strings from a country treating them like a nanny treats a child.
Having our US soldiers on their soil is inviting outsiders with an axe to grind against the Western world and killing innocent civilians caught in the middle.
Of course, if we just pull out they will have problems. The problem with starting that particular war in the first place was the simplistic thinking that if the dictator were dethroned all would be well and everyone would get along. The fact is Saddam is what kept order, even if it were a brutal dictatorship.
Iraqi's borders were defined by the UK as a spoil of war. Within that divide were very distinct and differing people who had no common link whatsoever. It is akin to the offense most African descended people would say to a white person who say all black you people look alike. This is what put a group of people who had no interest in being lumped together in the first place in a country the world would call Iraq.
They had a very rocky start and regime changes were frequent because the heart of the problem is there was no common Iraqi, just a bunch of people with different outlooks on life, different beliefs, different ways of doing things and even a religious difference as if you would try to lump together Catholics with Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Evangelical and force them to cohabit the same church building and share a service.
Yes, there are some Iraqis who want to give Iraq a chance with democracy. Some want to try to overcome all the differences and live together with their neighbors despite their deep rooted feelings. Others cannot get past these differences and want complete independence. Others still, the majority, just want to live their lives without anyone or any government oppressing them or locking them in and go back to the pre-Iraq days when it was their local leaders who lead their groups.
Isn't it about time we just handed them the keys to their brand new country and let them finally, once and for all, decide what they want to do with it? The US troops being there isn't helping.
The thing which really is keeping true order in most places are the extreme groups of people with their secret military force which our troops are allowing to do whatever they want to keep the peace - no matter how harsh they are being with the civilians! These groups are doing things that make Saddam look like a humanitarian. The rights for women have taken a giant step backwards in many parts where the women must be covered head to foot and in the presence of a man or they risk being beaten, tortured, raped and murdered while being accused of prostitution. These areas are slowly turning into what the Taliban created in Afghanistan.
Our troops are not keeping the peace and are only causing hostility by the locals. Whether they are there or not, there will be massive violence in Iraq. We have a duty to our soldiers not to put them in harm's way unnecessarily. This is not necessary. They have done what they were told and now Iraq is a mess and they are powerless to do anything to help. Bring them home now.
Official Site of Callen Damornen
The Iraqis have held their elections. They have their own fledgling military and police force. Our own President wants to assure us all is going as planned, yet alternative news sources show that it is a complete mess over there. Our troops being over there is encouraging more violence against the Iraqi civilians. Reports that up to 80% of the Iraqis want our troops out of their country show we have overstayed our "welcome".
Think way back into our own US history books. Part of the protest the colonist had was being forced to put up with the British troops who were there to protect them from the Natives whom the colonists were provoking antagonism. The colonists did not want to pay extra taxes to support the troops who were there for their own protection and did not want them lounging about their homes because there was nowhere else to put them up. Meanwhile, the troops were taking far too many liberties with the situation and taking advantage of the hospitality of the guests. Pretty soon, the colonists just wanted these troops out of their land. Sure, it was their fellow British soldier, but they wanted their own soldiers on their own turf to play by their own rules.
What happened next? The colonists got together and decided they could do better. Without much of an organized army, not much money, not much leadership or support from the rest of the world other than well wishes, they decided to take on the soldiers and start their own country. It wasn't easy. It wasn't pretty. Many people died in the process. As a result, we have the United States today.
Today, the Iraqis have a fledgling democracy. If a democracy is to thrive, there comes a point in time when THEY need to cut the apron strings from a country treating them like a nanny treats a child.
Having our US soldiers on their soil is inviting outsiders with an axe to grind against the Western world and killing innocent civilians caught in the middle.
Of course, if we just pull out they will have problems. The problem with starting that particular war in the first place was the simplistic thinking that if the dictator were dethroned all would be well and everyone would get along. The fact is Saddam is what kept order, even if it were a brutal dictatorship.
Iraqi's borders were defined by the UK as a spoil of war. Within that divide were very distinct and differing people who had no common link whatsoever. It is akin to the offense most African descended people would say to a white person who say all black you people look alike. This is what put a group of people who had no interest in being lumped together in the first place in a country the world would call Iraq.
They had a very rocky start and regime changes were frequent because the heart of the problem is there was no common Iraqi, just a bunch of people with different outlooks on life, different beliefs, different ways of doing things and even a religious difference as if you would try to lump together Catholics with Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, and Evangelical and force them to cohabit the same church building and share a service.
Yes, there are some Iraqis who want to give Iraq a chance with democracy. Some want to try to overcome all the differences and live together with their neighbors despite their deep rooted feelings. Others cannot get past these differences and want complete independence. Others still, the majority, just want to live their lives without anyone or any government oppressing them or locking them in and go back to the pre-Iraq days when it was their local leaders who lead their groups.
Isn't it about time we just handed them the keys to their brand new country and let them finally, once and for all, decide what they want to do with it? The US troops being there isn't helping.
The thing which really is keeping true order in most places are the extreme groups of people with their secret military force which our troops are allowing to do whatever they want to keep the peace - no matter how harsh they are being with the civilians! These groups are doing things that make Saddam look like a humanitarian. The rights for women have taken a giant step backwards in many parts where the women must be covered head to foot and in the presence of a man or they risk being beaten, tortured, raped and murdered while being accused of prostitution. These areas are slowly turning into what the Taliban created in Afghanistan.
Our troops are not keeping the peace and are only causing hostility by the locals. Whether they are there or not, there will be massive violence in Iraq. We have a duty to our soldiers not to put them in harm's way unnecessarily. This is not necessary. They have done what they were told and now Iraq is a mess and they are powerless to do anything to help. Bring them home now.
Official Site of Callen Damornen
posted by Callen Damornen at 4:12:00 pm
1 Comments:
yes, we need to get out of iraq. but there are two sides to the coin. while your analogy with the us revolution is nice, and one i wouldn't have thought of, there are some important differences, and some of them you touch on in your post.
the biggest problem with a pull-out is that whether we call them "insurgents," "revolutionaries," or just "terrorists," there *are* people in iraq who would take advantage of the disarray.
yes, they have had the first election, the next soon to follow. and yes, we need to start shifting the reins into the hands of the military and police we have been training over the last several months. those "secret military" groups yoy speak of... once we are gone they are completely uncontrolled, unsupervised, and i worry that it will just be a repeat of the same brutality and tyranny that was saddam's reign.
i think that you're right that our being there only causes more problems, and i'd like to see the dubya administration offer a real pull-out plan, rather than more of that same tired line about "we'll leave when the job is done." the fundamental problem, as you say, is we went there without anyone saying what "the job" would be, other than getting rid of saddam.
like you, i want this thing done with. i just want to see a responsible and realistic plan put forth. because although i campaigned against the war before we went there, and continue to do so, i cannot sanction just getting up, leaving, and wiping our hands of the whole thing. the sad truth is we went there, and we caused half this mess. we do have some responsibility to the iraqi people now to see that we don't leave them in a shittier situation than we found them in.
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