I’m no proponent of the war - have been against it from day one. I was one of the millions upon millions of people around the globe who cared enough about stopping this war to get out and protest it. I have not voted for Democrats before because they weren’t LIBERAL ENOUGH.
…and yet, I don’t think we can leave Iraq. Whether or not you agree with the the fact that we invaded is irrelevant - we’re THERE. We made a terrible mess of an already fucked up country. …but if we left now, Iraq would plunge into civil war, and would probably eventually succum to one or more of the various brutal Islamo-fascist warlords that will vie for control of the nation, or at least part of the nation.
Freedom in Iraq will become a huge fucking joke, and it’ll all be our fault. This will result in MORE terrorists whose fathers died in the war and want revenge. When you kill a man, you invite revenge from all that loved that man, especially his children.
When I was a kid, we went camping a lot. Every time we were there, my Dad would SCOUR the campground for any little pice of paper or plastic or metal that he could, and he’d put it in the trash bag and cart it out when we left. Once I asked him why he was doing what he was doing, and he replied, “Always leave the campground nicer than when you found it.” I’ve tried to live this motto - I fix up houses that I’m renting, I tune up and change the oil in a vehicle prior to selling it, and when I’m hiking, yes, I pick up whatever trash I see.
The point is, aren’t we obligated to clean up the mess we made in Iraq, even if we were against making it in the first place? This isn’t Vietnam where we’re inbetween two sides, one of which will inevitably take over and stabilize the country - there are MANY sides to the battle, and we’re in the thick of it.
The sad part is, I’m not so sure we could clean up this mess if we tried.
…but dammit, we oughta try.