Our future in Iraq

The success of the recent troop surge in reducing Iraqi civilian casualties at the cost of increased US casualties has muddied that waters about our future in Iraq. It's no longer clear that the best result for the citizens of Iraq will be produced by the immediate removal of our soldiers from the country.

Gerard Powers recently gave a speech that where he gives concerns like these a voice.  Take a listen.

Comments

[Miss Margo]

There are 3 wars in Iraq.

1)Shia vs. Sunni-an on-going battle between factions of a religion who have been battling since 600 B.C.

2) Al-Qaeda vs. Anyone who will get them press. Brought in by the lure of American blood, will stay there until we are all dead or they finally and fully romanced by our MTV Whiskey Sexy

3)Iraqi insurgents vs. American Occupiers. This "war" was over 4 years ago why the figit are we still there?

Remove Americans, and we remove at least 2/3 of the conflict.

Just a thought!

[MalevolentDragon]

I'm really glad you posted this, James, because I eat up any easy information I can about foreign policy. Often I feel I don't know enough and I thoroughly enjoy hearing opinions that are different/opposing to my own because it empowers me to search my own opinions for their truth. In case it wasn't obvious, my opinion has generally been to get the heck out of dodge before we cause more problems than we already have.

A few points that came to my mind while listening to this:

1) I fear responsibility like I fear the plague. This may describe why I have had such a difficult time getting my career off the ground. But as I have embraced the responsibility of finishing school, I can now start speaking more proudly as a person. I can start justifying the expense and work hard at my current job, not because I like the respect from working hard, but because it helps me achieve something great (finishing school) and be respected for that (both for myself and by others). In the same vein, this speech taught me that the U.S. does seem to really need to take responsibility for what is going on there now and that, regardless of what has been going on there for centuries, we have changed Iraq permanently (again) and we are responsible for whatever follows, to some degree. I feel that if the U.S. can embrace this and start finishing what we started long ago and never really solved (Hussein was obviously not a solution), we can truly have pride as a nation and justify our seat at the world table.

2) There was an article in Business Week a couple months ago about how the U.S. consumes around 13 times what it produces, which is why China (for whom the opposite is true) is loving us. Our society, more than ever before, is in a "use it, then toss it" mentality. When something gets old, we throw it away and get a new one. I am a culprit of this as much as the person next to me (*cough* 37" HDTV last year *cough*) but I try to avoid it unless it's luxury and allows my leisure to be truly that. We don't ask what becomes of that heap of (recyclable!) plastic and cardboard when we throw it out with the trash, because we don't care--we have the new TV. We are very much concerned with the now, and our house, our job, etc. and don't care much about what goes on beyond that. I'm starting to feel that our current view of the war (get out while we can) is a reflection of this philosophy.

While I hate myself for saying this and it kills me to side with those who will use the "ends justify the means" argument for why we got into the war in the first place, I wonder if trying to see this thing through in Iraq is the better philosophy. The worst part is, my cynicism screams that we are damned if we do, and we are damned if we don't. If we stay, more people will die, and our country's needs will continue to suffer as we go farther into debt trying to push for goals that may be many years away and do not benefit us immediately or directly, but a place halfway around the world. If we go, more people will die, a country rife with conflict will most certainly fall savagely to those with the most power and we will be to blame for a large part of the result.

"With great power comes great responsibility." Do preventative wars justify a use of power? How would you ever know? Does pulling out when things didn't go like we hoped mean we can go around doing this again in the future? How many times have we done this in the past?

Whatever the outcome, I hope upon hope that this country will learn a lesson about foreign policy from what happens in Iraq. Since we can't walk away unscathed, perhaps we can walk away clean.