I am sorry SPURSX3, but you are unbelievably naive on this issue.
We cannot impose our own democratic will on the sovereignty of another country that has completely alien beliefs and mores. We are invaders of Iraq; there is no other word for it regardless of the ridiculous rhetoric espoused by Bush's lackeys and the media twist to make it look as if we are eliminating WMD from the region or Hussain from the Iraqi people.
You have three distinct cultures at odds within Iraq, the Shites, the Sunnis, and the Kurds. Their culture, which has been embedded in the region for centuries, not decades, has always been for one to dominate the others. They are not going to create a happy family of some kind of democratic congress to solve regional problems. They are going to kill each other after they kill off as many Americans as possible first.
You are worried how it might look to our terrorist enemies if we withdrew from Iraq under the guise of what might look like defeat? We can't stay in Iraq long enough for us not to have that stigma. We do not have any sort of exit plan in place to leave without them claiming some sort of victory - it simply cannot happen.
Do you know that Saddam and Al Qaida despised each other prior to the U.S. invasion of Iraq? Now, Al Qaida is thoroughly embedded in a country where they were not welcome at all just over a year ago. They have brought so many outside people into the country that we will never be able to find them all and erradicate them. They can easily hide amongst all those Iraqi people who want us to stay around as long as possible, as you say, but has it occurred to you that as long as the U.S. provide such easy targets for these terrorists, they will not focus their total attention on them? Blow up several Iraqi's who try to join the police or new military to discourage compliance and take out a U.S. military convoy with a roadside bomb and this could continue into our grandchildren's dotage.
Please tell me something that our world power Amercan government cannot, which is, HOW do you extricate yourself from this morass without losing credibility? Can we hand the headache over to the UN? Not without keeping our military at full strength in Iraq to support them. Give it over to the Iraqi's? How long do you think it will take for Al Qaida to put a Taliban-type government in power, only with more resources then available to them in Afghanistan to export terror? A year? Perhaps two?
The terrorists imported into Iraq to distrupt any attempts by the U.S. to stablize the region can continue unabated for decades, if need be, because they are totally within the Arab network that we can never adequately penetrate. Every time we destroy cities or neighborhoods to eliminate any terrorists cells we can identify comes with the strong likelihood that "former" innocents who possibly supported our presence there will lose their own lives or the lives of their loved ones. And then we will create more enemies, who will turn to their new "friends" to rid their country of the invaders.
The decision to invade Iraq with no concern for the consequences was possibly the stupidest action a U.S. president has ever done. It has endangered not just our current youth, but generations yet to come. It has done more to centralize our terrorist enemies to attack a highly visable target in a way that can only unify the Arab world as no other event could. It has created countless opportunities for these enemies to claim new victims and victories. Every innocent Iraqi killed will be glorified so the next visit by an American convoy or civilian contractors to their town will give them ample opportunities to brag about hanging the dead, burning corpse of the hated American invaders from bridges once again, knowing that Arab TV and biased sound bites will play up the incident and new recruits will come running as it seems to be easier and easier pickings, and backing the winners will give them courage and pride.
The world was on our side after 9/11, but we did not have the right president in office to take advantage of it. We have idiot Bush, who singlehandedly destroyed this good will by stating to all that they were either with us or against us, leaving them essentially in limbo on how to respond.
Forcing action when prudence was demanded, without regard for the long-term consequences has mired us in a chaotic nightmare that will eventually make the Viet Nam War look like a weekend drinking binge.
