I've been completely clear throughout. I'll clarify my views again for you.
The coalition won the war with Saddam's regime. It was a slam dunk, as our CIA dude said. We overthrew and destroyed an autocratic regime which was hated by the outside world and hated by the population it ruled over. George Bush and his administration completely triumphed over Saddam's side, well done GB. The members of Saddam's regime are now dead, on trial, in exile, or doing their pathetic little insurging routine. We won, Saddam lost. That is a simple fact, regardless of your political disposition.
As for whether we can leave now, remaining in Iraq and trying to halt the sectarian violence is a humanitarian effort which does NOT serve US interests; rather, it serves the interests of the planet as a whole. It costs the US a lot, but we can't be forced to stop the stabilization effort by those who oppose US presence in Iraq. We can, however, decide that it is not worth the cost to America, and leave, letting the people of that region decide their fate (20% of them die? who knows?) for themselves. In other words, it is totally up to us. Departing Iraq now would be greatly in the US interest in terms of economics, US lives, and letting Iraq and perhaps more of the ME region descend into their own battle (which will involve them, not us).
So to answer whether we can leave now, of course we can, that would be the self interest driven thing to do.
If we leave today, we still won the war with Saddam's regime. The Iraqis will have failed to take the opportunity presented to them to live in a peaceful, civil, tolerant pro-US society. They chose instead whatever comes out after we leave. I'd say a poor choice on their part, but we shall see. |
