Re: "I don't see how a yes or no question is necessarily rhetorical....'
No, of course ALL questions that can be answered with a yes or a no don't have to be *rhetorical* questions.
I simply guessed that the question you asked must have been intended rhetorically because, (not only was it technically *impossible* to do what your question asked, to pull all forces out 'over-night'... which certainly lends a rhetorical air to that question), but the very choice of honest 'yes' or 'no' answers depends SO MUCH on information that you did not specify in your question, that the answer easily shifts between 'yes' and 'no' depending on all that unseen information... so much so that, without further explanations, a 'yes' or a 'no' becomes meaningless, as it tells us nothing about the decision making.
As you can see from my reply below... my answer to your question becomes either a YES, or a NO depending on the informative details that you left out of the question.
(The Devil is *always* in the DETAILS! LOL!)
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Below is your question, and my answer, as promised:
Q --- "Do you want everyone to leave this weekend and let the young democracy collapse? Yes or no..."
A --- That depends on what the choices are.
If the choice is between 'every US troop' leaving 'over-night' versus being pinned-down fighting in Iraq FOREVER... then my choice would be: Yes. Leave 'over-night'.
If the choice is 'leave over-night' versus being pinned-down fighting in Iraq for another *twenty years*, then my answer would ALSO be 'Yes'.
Of course, LITERALLY 'leaving over-night' (within a 24 hour period) is a logistic IMPOSSIBILITY, and I suspect that you know this. So, IMO, that contributes to the air of rhetorical unreality that hovers over the question that you posed. (THAT, and demanding a 'yes or no' to a very complex series of difficulties....)
IMO, a much *more likely* time frame for a fairly expeditious US extrication from the Iraqi civil war (pulling some forces totally out, redeploying others - to Kurdistan or Kuwait or Turkey, for example) would likely take the better part of six months or so.... And, a *rushed* removal of forces would still likely involve at least three months or so.
Furthermore... your rhetorical question 'pull out 'overnight' fails to specify: do you mean from every inch of what is currently mostly regarded as 'Iraqi soil', or not? Do you INTEND TO INCLUDE Kurdistan in that question?
A --- For, IF YOU DO INTEND that Kurdistan be included in your question, demanding a 'yes or no' answer about whether I want us to 'pull-out' 'over-night'... that that would force my previous 'Yes' reply to change to a 'No' answer.
For, I do not see any reason or need for the US to not be engaged on the ground in the --- relatively very peaceful (not one single American soldier has died there yet) --- newly forming nation of Kurdistan. (Still, I heard on the TV just last night that we *currently* only have about '60 guys' based in Kurdistan... so it is not a very big deployment!) |
