Should American and British troops pull out of Iraq or stay until the job is done?

Question

What job! i haven't a clue but that all bush and blair keep going on about "untill the job is done"

Answer 1

Stay until the job is done. Of course there should be exit criteria, and I wouldn't even be opposed to a reasonable timeline, but the first objective should be completing the mission. We abandoned the Iraqis under Bush-41, which resulted in some of the worst human rights atrocities in history. Whether you agreed or disagreed with the War in Iraq or its motives, you should not want to abandon a vulnerable populace.

Answer 2

Clearly the best outcome would be for the American and British troops (and troops from a number of other countries) to leave when the mission has been accomplished (i.e. a stable, secure, democratic Iraq is in place).

To leave any other way would allow the jihadists, the extremists and terrorists to claim victory. This would not only hurt the interests of the free world, but if the democratic experiment in Iraq fails it could become a failed state and a haven for breeding even more extremists.

But the key question is, can the objective of a stable and democratic Iraq be achieved? If the answer is no, then it would still be better to withdraw now anyway.

The longer this whole Iraq fiasco continues, the clearer it is becoming that little if any progress is being made. Perhaps now is the time to cut one's losses and withdraw.

Answer 3

Well unfortunately we cannot just remove all the troops at this point. We went in destroyed the Iraqi army, then disbanded what we did not destroy, shut down the country for several months. This resulted in the rise of the insurgency and the morass we see now.

THis is all the result of piss poor planning and implementation. They went in with an idea on how to destroy the Iraqi military; however, no idea how or what might happen next.

The economy was weak from years of sanctiona and collapsed after we invaded. People could not work, could not make money, and could not buy food.

We had no PLAN together to assist the Iraqi Civilians, or get things on track quickly so it went to hell.

If we leave now we will leave a serious power vaccum. The result would be a full out civil war that will draw in Saudi Arabia in support of the Sunnis, and Iran in support of the Shias, and leave the entire middle east wrapped up in open warfare and strife.

So we need to stay and keep a lid on things as best we can until the Iraqi's can take over and keep peace within their own borders without nack up from the US military.

The SURGE actually makes perfect sense from strategic and tactical perspective. Get enought troops in to take out the strongest opponents to the Iraqi government, givbe them a breather to get a handle on things and then pull out slowly as they can replace withdrawling us troops.

Answer 4

Personnaly I think we should pull out of the hell hole...Those infidels have been fighting with one another since before you an I were even brought into this world...Nothing is ever going to change and there for the job will never be done in the part of the world....It is in their blood and religion to fight with one another....I honestly feel that it is a waist of time, money and lives to be over there supporting and protecting these people. Sure some of them may appreciate our help but the majority don't even want us there....So I say the "F" with that country...We need to bring our people home and let the country fend for themselves....I am tired of going over there and putting my life at risk for the ungrateful country and so are the rest of the American and British troops that are over there or have gone over there....What good has it done? So we took Sadam out of the picture, but what has that changed..? Not a damn thing....Just my opinion.

Answer 5

Wow is this is so sad. to see the answers of people. it wasnt but how many years ago that we had 2 planes run it to towers and yall want this to be over in a matter of minutes?
but to answer your question stay the course. no polical talk just military If your going to take an action against a country Right or Wrong stay the course. These are times that we need to remember the sons and daughters that have fallen either from the US or from our allies to pull out would make their deaths be in vain.

Answer 6

To Kenygurl (the poster above me), YOU ARE WRONG! You paint of picture of total peace loving Iraqee's all living in harmony under Saddam until America decided to take him on because of being oil greedy. You cannot be further from the truth!

I guess you really don't know what kind of person Saddam really was and how many people that lived under his rule lived in total fear--He killed and tortured people like a madman, totally without conscience. He even had 40 of his own relatives killed because he was a brutal and heartless leader.The murders and merciless slaughters in Kuwait were documented beyond question. Pictures of entire towns of the Kurds in Northern Iraq being wiped out with poison gas have been made available to the world via television.

Having said that, to answer the original question, Jon, I'm not sure that the "job" will ever be done, but I do know that many Iraqees are glad and thankful that Saddam was overthrown and that the American troops have tried to help their country. And, as a matter of fact, a lot of them hope that we don't completely pull out because they fear that it will get worse than it already is. I have a brother over there right now serving and he is able to talk to many civilians and Iraqee pilots and personel on a daily basis because of his job, and many of them want us to stay until a level of peace is put in place---howevever at this point I am doubtful that will ever be accomplished because of all the factions within their own borders-the Shia and the Sunni's commiting violent acts against each other. I am proud of my son serving in Iraq and all that his battalion accomplished there getting rid of thousands of insurgents in Fallujah, and I am very proud of all of our troops over there right now because they are defending our country's freedom. How many terrorist attacks have occured in our country since 911?

Answer 7

What job is that? Secure the oil fields? I think thats been done. We can go home now and let them keep fighting for rule over eachother, maybe in another few hundred years they'll have figured out how to run a society where people all have a voice. You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

Answer 8

When will the job be done, when the last barrel of oil is stolen, when the last Iraqi is killed or when Dick Cheney has more money than Bill Gates?
Leave now and get the final bloodbath over so that the Iraqis can rebuild their own country.

PS some people should check the definition of 'Infidels'.

Answer 9

The job will never 'get done' the way we are handling it. And the US doesn't have the resources to continue this nonesense any longer.

This current course of action becomes a bigger failure every day. US is in a 'surge' mode now and things are only getting worse.

Instead of fighting these guys on their own terms, we need to take a much smarter (less violent) approach to this mess.

Answer 10

Depends on what you, or more directly, what Bush and Blair mean by "job is done".

I think they mean when things are cool and Iraq can provide security for themselves. Pretty open ended if you ask me, and rather unreasonable.