The overwhelming majority of people on this site want the soldiers home, right? What do these people think....

Question

will happen in Iraq if we just leave? What are the long term affects for this Nation, Iraq, and the rest of the Middle East?

I have heard everyone, or almost everyone, say "just bring them home," but not one of these people has addressed the affects of such an action. If you are one of these people, what do you think will happen by bringing our troops home?

Answer 1

Excellent question.

The answer is, nothing good happens by bringing the troops home before Iraq is able to govern itself and maintain it's own security.

First, if we were to leave Iraq when it was not ready, there will be a bloodbath between the Sunies and Shiites. Remember Rwanda? Same thing.

Then after a few years, or even perhaps sooner, a radical Islamist group will take power, probably with the aid of Iran, just like happened in Afghanistan. That regime will then sponsor terrorism, just like Afghanistan did, except they will have nice oil revenues to do so.

Also, the USA will suffer because we will have demonstrated to the world and all our enemies and potential enemies, that we are just too weak to stomach a long fight. I mean we've lost 3,000 troops. Truly, that is a drop in the bucket when you think of casualties in past wars. Our enemies will no longer fear us.

Worse yet, our allies will realize that they too cannot count on us when the going gets tough.

I cannot see one positive outcome, except a very short term one where we stop losing the lives of our soldiers. This will be replaced in a few years, by the lives of American civilians that are killed by terrorists. It will also help the spread of radical Islam all over the world.

But liberals care about none of this. They are too shortsighted in their efforts to score political points and bring down a president they hate. They don't give a rat's *** about the eventual consequences, and the harm it will do to our country in the future.

Answer 2

Iraq is not the war, it is the battlefield. The war we fight in Iraq is simply the gathering point for two opposing ideologies.
The time to debate whether we should be in Iraq or not is over. The fact of the matter is that we are committed there. Like it or not, sides have been chosen.
We are in a war that was harder than expected. And. Bush paid for it in the last election. But. People waving their "I told you so finger" does not do any one any good. We had better understand how important it is that we win there.
Much of the "civilized" world seems content to live under the umbrella of American protection. And. Then they would have the back seat audacity to critisize our methods. All the while offering no solution. Making quit certain to keep themselves far clear of harms way.
What has become clear is that very few formerly strong allies currently have any capacity for war fare. Do you remember how impotent they were in Kosavo They can't even get food delivered in Somalia.Or. Stop the killing of tens of thousands of people in Darfur.
It would be nice if if some responsibility for peace in the world would come off of our backs, but what we see from most of our "allies" is an inability to perform even relatively routine humanitarian missions.
Many of our allies refuse to understand the importance victory. I guarantee that the other side understands that whoever wins in Iraq will determine the course of the region for the next 100 years.

Answer 3

first of all we will be in Iraq a long time. We may not have the number of troops we have now and we might not be in the cities but we are not leaving Iraq for a long time if ever.
IT don't matter if the Democrats take the presidency in '08 as they will say anything to get elected. When all is said and done the U.S. will be in the middle east for at least a 100 years. Period.
I am not in favor of any war but I look at history and can see no end to this conflict (it is a religious war) . This will make the past wars look like a picnic in the part.
We are in WW III ...Believe it or not and this war is just beginning to warm up. So "don't be naive" ...just bring them home won't happen in our children's lifetime! I would not surprised to see the draft start again after the terrorist bomb one of our cities. This too shall pass away..

Answer 4

We were wrong to go into Iraq in the first place. After we leave our nation will be stronger and safer. Our staying in Iraq only makes our situation worse, more deaths, more cost, more anger, and decreased military readiness for other problems. The same scare talk was used to tell us what a disaster it would be if we lost in Vietnam. Vietnam is now a country with a strong market economy that has just joined the WTO and good relations with the US. You know how the British army defeated the IRA terrorists in Northern Ireland? They left! As long as they were there, they were the fuel that incited the insurgency. When they left, the people of Ireland got rid of the IRA as the people of Iraq will do when we leave. There will not be a disaster when we leave Iraq, there will only be more of a disaster if we stay.

Answer 5

Look, we aren't there to help them. I mean, I think we can agree that that's not why we went over there in the first place.
I can see your point, about the effects or cutting them off immediately, even though I've always wanted the troops back home. Bush just sent, what was it?, 20,000 troops i think, or is going to, whatever. My point is, if we were going to try to help these people, then we needed these troops in the beginning.
Right now, all it seems that we're doing is terrorizing them in their own homeland, and trying to force them to be us, and live like us and take our cultures, and political systems, when the fact of the matter is that we can't force them.
When an object pushes on a second object, it's nature for it to push back. It's going to backfire if we don't start giving them some control.
I agree with you, we can't just pull out, but we have to leave sometime, so we might as well begin letting the Iraqi people have a choice. Gradually pull out, letting them build their forces to protect themselves, and giving them a chance to stand on their own.
If we brought our troops home immediately, all the individual groups in Iraq would fight for power, then one of them would win. And come after us.

Answer 6

As Bush said. If we pull out and come home before it is taken care of, the terrorists would follow us home. How many terrorists passed through those terrorist training camps then scattered all over the world? It isn't about Iraq or Afganistan. It's about terrorism. If anyone listed and remembers the first speech that President Bush gave just before this started, he said it was not a war like any other war we (or anyone else) has fought before. It would not be a cake walk and that terrorism is a world-wide problem that has to be stopped or at least gotten under control. He also said it is so big and wide-spread that it would not be finished by one President, it has to be an on-going fight or civilization would cease to exist as we know it. That was the speech that was followed by an epidemic of patriotic display like we have never seen. Flags were flying, songs were sung, new songs were written and people weren't ashamed to be proud to be Americans. That was shortly after 911 when a shocked nation listened to their President tell them that this kind of agression against our country would not be tolerated. It was also the last time the Republicans and Democrats were as close to being a "real" government as I can remember, and I am no spring chicken. Then the next election year came up and it was politics as usual. You said--he said. They all knew what was going on and why. If they weren't paying attention or if they don't have the backbone to stand behind their convictions, they shouldn't be there anyway! What would happen if we turn tail and run? Our kids and grandkids would live in a country with car bombings, roadside bombs, and all kinds of terrorist attacks. We have had it good. We owe it to our kids and grandkids to protect our liberty for them.

Answer 7

Good question, but I disagree with your premise. I don't believe that the majority of people on this site (or in America) want to bring our troops home without securing a peaceful Iraq.

Now for the rest of your question, the "what if" part: If we pull out without securing the foundation for a peaceful society then we will be setting up a period of continuing strife for the citizens of Iraq and eventually a fertile recruiting and training ground for the various terrorist and insurgent groups in the region. If that happens ... well, I'd rather not consider that...

Answer 8

Obviously we can't bring the troops home right away Bushwacker and his cronies made sure of that. You know that emissaries from the United Nations were doing a good job of searching for WMD. The US arbitrarily decided to go to war dragging into the fray Britain, Italy, Australia, Spain and more. What is the most feasible way to recover troops in a situating like this? Is Bushwaker and his cronies willing to lose face by admitting defeat or to lose face staying in Iraq condemning more American troops to death and injury.

Answer 9

These people, me included, think that we have done all that
we can to get the people to protect and govern themselves.
A continued presence in Iraq is never going to erase hundreds
of years of religious bias and prejudice that has revealed itself
now that What's His Name is out of power and dead.

All good things must come to an end. If our presence in Iraq has been good for the people...it still must end. If our presence in Iraq has not been good for the people...it must come to an end.

Yes, a civil war is likely to erupt....but it is likely that will happen
whether we are there or not. There is going to be middle-Eastern
violence...there already is....in Iraq and other places. There is threat from Iraq, N. Korea, and elsewhere that is on the immediate horizon.

As for the people, I feel sorry for them...yet I also feel sorry for
those suffering in Africa, China, Russia, and elsewhere. We cannot use concern for the people as a reason for continued presence there....especially, when the Iraqi government itself
is unwilling to take the necessary action to quell the violence among its own people.

And as I recall, the plight of the people was not the reason the
President led us into this war anyway. It was WMD and terrorism. Since that was the initial reason for going in, and since
it turned out to be a false reason, I just wonder what advances against WMD and terrorism could have been made if the billions
upon billions of dollars spent on this war had been placed elsewhere.

Answer 10

Maybe the question should be would you give up your life for the Iraq people? how about you sons?Can you force people to think like us?A thousand years of history will not change over night ,their god tells them you must die or you must be like them,do you think you will tell them their god is wrong?Can you or us force them to love each other?They hate each other ,same as what we have here,take the force away you have Yugoslavia all over again.Some wars are just wrong,should we go back and finish Nam??and what was that war about?Do we need to lose 60,000 before we learn? the way you win a war is to destroy every thing and every one,but just or few.other wise you become a country devoid of men like England and France then you get taken over,Like we are now by Mexico.Is that what you hero's want?