Democrats: If we pull out of Iraq before the end of the year, what would our long-term mid-east strategy be?

Question

Many people are calling for a full troop withdrawal from Iraq. I am opposed to it, but I admitedly don't know the details of how a withdrawal would impact America's long-term Middle East strategy. I am curious to hear any thoughts on how pulling out would influence that strategy, and what our strategy would be post-withdrawal.

Answer 1

1st of all, the "term mid east stategy" sounds like we are intent on Americanizing the world or at least conquering part of it. It's a very good question though. But i return one back to you. What is the long term consequences of staying in the middle east another decade? As a Democrat, I disagreed with going there in the first place, but as a Constitutional Liberal (not the misinformed ideas many have on what a liberal is) I think we need to extracate ourselves as soon as practicable...it wasn't the liberals who decided to go there , but are likely to be put into the position of the ones to find the solution. Some people may not realize it, but a liberal isn't afraid to join the service or serve his country...there are groups inside of the Democratic party that would never be in favor of war no matter what the reasons, they are Liberal in some way or other, but do not describe all liberals...it's like saying there are good baseball players from Detroit, so everyone in Detroit loves baseball. If the Democrats gain the presidency in 2 1/2 years, I would like to see a more open discussion and a transparent decision making process. It doesn't matter who is elected though, we aren't leaving soon. My position is that we need to stay, but try to involve other countries in the discussion...we can't kill every arab...show them that we don't want to be there, use diplomacy and spread a whole lot of honey to show them our intent. They think now that our intention is to conquer them...heck it looks that way to me from minnesota. Now that we are there, only fools would pull out and leave a vacume. The Neo-con policies that put us in Iraq have put us in a position of exposing our military weaknesses--the weaknesses in our armor are exposed by engaging in a full tilt military adventure--they watch and learn how we do things and plan how to penetrate it. But hind sight is 20-20 they say...we must salvage something from this. But I am certain that the answer to this does not lie in expanding this military exercise...the only thing we can do is prop up Iraq the best we can and get out (several years away) with fast reaction forces ready to rush in if needed for many years to come.

Crazies like "chainsaw" above are the nuts that got us into this. Do they really think things out or is "nuke 'em" the only answer they have? Democrats cannot, as he said, unfund the war...they do not have the numbers to get a bill like that through. the republicans control the government and even get to say what official committees will be created. The Republicans bring a bill to the floor and all the democrats can do is offer amendments for vote...which they do over and over...but are shot down at each try.

Answer 2

You can learn from recent history what a pullout would mean. Watch the movie Black Hawk Down and you will see the beginning of it. We went into Somalia to take out some bad guys. Our guys got caught and the animals drug dead bodies of American soliders through the streets and it was shown on world wide TV. This emboldened the terrorists because they learned that Americans would not take casualities. After that, they bombed a few embassies, attacked the US Cole, and attacked the Trade Centers before 9-11.

The only way to end this is kill the terrorists and take out Iran, Syria, Hesbollah, Hamas, the Palastinian government, North Korea, and many more.

If we do not finish this, Iran, or some other country will get a nuke and drop it into one of our cities, if they do not use it in Israel.

The Democrats do not have any strategy, all they do is complain and pander to the insane communists that control their party. If they were really against the war, why not vote to defund it? (I give credit to this point to an unnamed Rush Limbaugh caller from this week.)

Answer 3

Jackie...all lifes are equal.

Patrick M....wouldn't it be a little barbaric of us to completely isolate a whole group of people from the rest of the world and us? I see how people are so enraged by this situation and the loss of life, but can't we struggle for all the world and not just us?

I am neither a Republican or a Democrat, but I do sit idly by and see people dying over there and hatred on both ends escalating, a blind ignorant hatred that is portrayed in some of these answers. I would love to see us pull out and would hope that one day everyone could learn that we are all people just trying to get by whatever way we can and that more importantly we are all equal and in this struggle of life together. If all of us could learn that religion, race, sex, ethnicity, social class, ect. does not matter, then I would hope we would be a lot better off. But whose to say that idealistic world would actually work? I guess that is what I am calling for, more of a "ficticious" world where we could all live together and empty ourselves of judgement against our fellow being. But then again why does it have to be ficticious? Tell me it would never work, I know enough people don't think it will, but isn't at least hoping for it and realizing it half the journey? I hate politics and political parties for the sole purpose that they sway people's view points so drastically. Just because you call yourself a Republican you have to defend everything Bush says/does, and on the other hand just because you are a Democrat you have to criticize everything he does (this is theoretically speaking). Well, in case no one has ever thought of this brillian concept before, there is good and bad to every decision that is made. Not everyone can ever be pleased at once. If there was a way to do that though, for the world's sake, it would be nice to consider trying.

I would like to believe everything is possible....

Answer 4

What would you consider to be the end of the war? We've proven there are no weapons of mass destruction, deposed and imprisoned Saddam Hussein, and helped to establish a democratic government. That's far above and beyond what's normally considered to be completion of all of the objectives of a war. About half of the continuing violence is because our troops are there, and the other half would continue with or without them. Once we get out, we should stay out. We've done more than enough over there already.

By the way, I can't help feeling a little amused (in a sad way) every time another Republican says we can't pull our troops out any time in the foreseeable future, because it's such an obvious admission that nobody has the slightest clue what they're suoposed to be trying to do there any more.

Answer 5

The only way this could work is: if we FIRST withdraw all non military Americans and Europeans (allies) and get them home safely. Then COMPLETELY withdraw all military and equipment, etc. from the ENTIRE Middle East. Bring all of our people, all categories, home. Stay out of the Middle East and any other place that is hostile towards America. Stop sending any and all aid to anyone other than Americans.
Close the borders. Give our soldiers TLC and R and R. Then redeploy them within our borders. They can be sent to our borders, to our marinas, to our sea, our airspace, etc. and protect US. They should be given housing for themselves and immediate family, benefits, and triple pay.
Unless the US withdraws completely, this won't work. We will remain vulnerable targets of foreign extremists.

Answer 6

I don't give a damn about Iraq anymore. Hundreds of thousands of them marched in the streets today chanting " Death to America! Death to Isreal!" Those ingrates should appreciate us a little more, since we gave them freedom. They want to kill us? Fine. We'll just pull out and let them blow each other up. The rest of the world, including the USA, shouldn,t even bother with the mideast. They are all barbarians with no sense of diplmacy. My strategy is pull our men and women out of their, and once we find an alternative energy source, Place a full-Scale Embargo on all middle eastren nations. The time to isolate us from the mideast is NOW.

Answer 7

i am of the opinion that our presence in iraq will not only continue but strengthen over time.... there are very credible sources that indicate everything from 911 to iraq were part of a larger overall vision of the future to have a permanent military base in the middle east to defend against a percieved threat from asia. ... i will be very surprized if troops are pulled out of Iraq ever. here, this is not a conspiracy theory just read this ...read the original if you dont buy into the summary ... then read up on the PNAC which is the group that wrote it ... then research into who is in the group ...(most of the members of the current administration.)

Answer 8

And now it's today, and liberals are blaming Bush even though it was Obama's catastrophic decision to pull troops out of Iraq.

Answer 9

Well being as democrats normally support tax and spend policies I'm sure we'd issue grants for terrorist camp reconstruction, have the French rearm those needing weapons, and probably let Russia and China take the Iraqi peoples oil so long as the new dictator got his payola....

Answer 10

I say leave the Middle East to the people who live there.