If the USA witdraws from Iraq........?

Question

To stay or go? Its the same question that America faced in Vietnam. Eventually they chose to go, but the cost of staying that long was enormous. I am really keen to hear peoples views on this because this is surely a decision that MUST be taken within the next 6-12 months. I cannot see the American public living with a rising death toll of its own soldiers, never mind the huge financial cost. And leaving moderate I raquis to live under another dictatorial state, would that be fair?

But, on the other hand, what is the cost of handing the terriroists a victory, for that is undoubtedly what they will claim. It will embolden them to do the same in other areas and will probably encourage them to attack American and other Western interests.

Hoo boy! What a mess. Any solutions out there?....anybody???

Thanks for the responses; it appears from the first 7 answers that the concensus is that the USA should stay and finish the job, even though the initial decisions to go there were wrong.

I would agree with this, firstly for the sake of moderate, innocent, defenceless Iraqi's,but also as I think that handing the terrorists a victory in Iraq would be a disaster.

Sapient and Richard. Thank you for your well thought out responses. Its all interesting stuff and I dont know how its all going to play out in the end. All I can say is, God Bless America!

Answer 1

Everyone keeps talking about Finishing the Job, what exactly is the Job? At first the job was to remove Saddam from office, fine, did that, no prob. What is the Job now? To establish Democracy? What happens if the majority vote is for a theocracy allied with Iran? To fight terrorism? Where is it, how do capture or kill "Terrorism", what cities does it have that we can target for missile strikes? Where do we deploy our soldiers to make war on "Terrorism" and how will they know who to kill when they get there? The longer we stay the more Iraqis will see us as the enemy, after all, we're ones who invaded their country after a strike on us that they had nothing to do with. Forget the rhetoric, the flag waving, and the smoke screens, those don't play in other countries, they are looking solely at what we do, and what are doing looks more and more to the rest of the world like we went in just to seize control of oil fields. Everyone tries to argue with me that the Iraqis shouldn't feel that way, but I'm not the one you have to convince, I'm not the one shooting and setting off the bombs, those are people you have to convince. In Nam all the enemy had to do was wait us out, eventually the death count got so high that staying would have been political suicide for any administration that tried. We may have forgotten that, rest assured the enemy hasn't. Bush has said 2009 at the earliest to get out, how many of our people in body bags does that work out to?

Answer 2

You are right this is just like Vietnam. When will America learn from history. I personally think one of the big motives for going to war was for the oil. First we must get the Iraqi soldiers to fight for themselves and then we have to get out, because we are doing more harm then good by staying there. We aren't stopping terrorism the US is spreading it. Terrorism cant be stopped, we have it here in the US with the gangs(crips, bloods, MS-13), KKK, Neo-Nazis, CIA (secret prisons), and how about all the racial profiling. The USA Patriot Act is an excuse to arrest muslims. If we bring our troops home, the economy will become better, we can fix the problems are country is facing, gas prices will go down. The less the US gets involved with other countries policies, the less countries will hate us, thus there will be a decrease in terrorism. So the sooner the US gets out the better.

Answer 3

ok first being in the army and been to iraq we need to stay and finish the job! i lost 6 friends there so dont tell me that we are there fighting for nothing, my friends died keeping this country safe from terrorisim!!!! the iraqi army is doing well in learning how to defend themselves but if we pull out now that would give the terrorists a solid foothold in the middle east and there would be more attacks on the US as well as other western countries.

Answer 4

this is a very hard question because the issue is so complex. all i know is that what ever we are doing....its not working.. in fact there are more terrorist now then before because there was no terrorist before the war in iraq and now there is tons..so we need to change what we are doing. we need to first understand the people.. they have a different culture from us, what works for us may not work for them. they need to build the country themselves. i say slowly take the troops out...im not saying to abandon them. we should assist them as much as possible like food, medicine and education. but they need to protect themselves or learn how to. they need to have pride of the government they made instead of us telling them what to do.
oh yah one more thing about the terrorist. we made them. if we did not invade iraq, they would not be terrorist. they would not attack us if we did not attack them in the first place....its ok to let the so called "terrorist" to "win". we need to show compassionate, which does not make us look weak. all these "terrorist" want is their land back. which we took.

Answer 5

I must say, I have never been a supporter of the war. But at this point, we must get the job done. Therefore, Bush unfortunately needs to commit more troops and find ways to discourage the rapid terrorists movements developing all around Iraq.

Answer 6

We need to stay to finish the job this time like my dad says. If we pull out of Iraq it will become a chaotic mess that would probably see a rise in a Taliban-like power structure like what happened in Afghanistan after the Russians pulled out. The U.S. should not abandon them like they did after the Russo-Afghan War. We need to gain friends in that area not isolate them until they collapse.
Most of the insurgents are coming over the borders from Syria and Iran and that is where we need to concentrate on stopping them the most.

Answer 7

AS an American, i'm ashamed at my fellow human beings. Why are we so brainwashed? Saddam became a not a stable guy, little doubt, yet does anybody understand that it became US, our own government, that put in Saddam into skill, and presented the weapons that he examined on his own human beings? Why are we such traitors? Why are we consistently intervening, and making worldwide issues worse? word that we've this stupid "blind patriotism" via showing Toby Keith conflict movies, showing yellow ribbons, and this different crock of sh*t. awaken, our own politicians are destroying our shape, eroding our own rights, and making themselves extra efficient. everybody is quite stupid, the genuine human beings care approximately restoring their rights, upholding the form, and don't invade different countries for fake motives. Take care.

Answer 8

NO! we can not step down from Iraq! We have been fighting forever and if we stop now we will look weak. We can't let the USA look weak can we? NO Way! we need to fight till Iraq goes down or surrenders. GO USA! I LOVE BUSH!

Answer 9

well the u.s is so deep already if they leave now there will be problems, they made the mistake to go over there so now there basically stuck there for long time to come almost, I say there just making things worse and you cant stop destiny what will or might happen to the U.S we are always will be a target and that will never stop

Answer 10

It is a complicated decision, but we should finish what we went there to do first....