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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: neolib who wrote (179388)	1/8/2006 12:46:08 AM
From: Hawkmoon	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

I'm more concerned about the affect of Iraq not turning out OK on the WOT. Which is why I find it particularly odd that anyone sharing that concern would advocate a unilateral pull-out from Iraq. I can't think of anything that would guarantee that Iraq failed to "turn out OK" than a sudden withdrawal of US troops and support at this point. Now give it a year or two, and we're not seeing an increase in the security and political situation, now that their army/police are being built up, then I think we can possibly just either saying "screw it" or bringing in more troops and just totally cleaning house, even if it means detaining every suspect MAM until we're sure of they are not part of the insurgency. (I would not advocate the latter activity).. I've been in Iraq for 1 1/2 years, and I've been exposed to a bit of the politicking and inter-play between the various factions there (most of it second and third hand, but still from fairly reliable sources). IMO, we're starting to make some progress, especially in the Sunni areas of Fallujah and Ramadi. We still have some problems farther west in Ar Rutbah and NE near Tikrit and Bayji, but I believe those issues will be dealt with in due course. But as I've said in previous posts, we really need to ramp up the rhetoric and pressure on the Iraqi government by stating that we're not going to stay there forever and that they need to be seen as doing more to provide security to their country. It "sings" well in international press, and even more, it forces even more accountability upon the Iraqi leadership to get their act together. Hawk