What should be done about Iraq? » Forum Post by Mikes Daily Log

1. Stay the course

It's the right thing to do since we started this whole mess.

2. Pull out and let the Iraqis deal with it.

While not a bad idea, it would be wrong to do since we started the whole mess.

3. Re-deploy to neighboring countries and only step back in if things get out of hand

So what is going on at the moment is not out of hand? This one makes no sens to me at this moment.

4. Flood the country with military forces and overwhelm the insurgency

I think this will only make us more hated because no matter how many soldiers we have, we still can't tell who's the bad guy and who's the innocent. We would have to kill first, ask questions later and we already have a bad reputation as it is.

5. Divide Iraq up into three separate countries.

I do not believe it is our responsability to create 3 new countries out of 1. I do not believe it is our right to do so either, who are we to take away what so many Iraqi people have lived and died for to call home?

To complain about why we went into Iraq at this point is a waste of time and , to me, ignorant since time can not be reversed. What should matter is how we deal with today and tomorrow. How do we got the job done, how do we find our way out, how do we walk away in good terms? Our first goal, as Americans, is to unite and find common ground, we need to set aside our political feelings and make an effort to get along and do what's best for this country. Of course there's better chances of peace between Israel and Lebanon. I have lost a lot of faith in my people (Americans) and my only hope is for everyone to wake up and realize the whole we are digging ourselves into before it's too deep to get out of.

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As of the time the Hussein Regime was toppled, the war COULD have been over. The bacteria moved in to Iraq for no other reason than to kill at will. For us to take any option that includes leaving, we would be betraying everyone of the people who risked their lives to get out and vote in the Iraq elections.

Worse yet, we will (once again) prove to the world that all you have to do is make it hurt, and the Americans will run home to momma.

Therefore 2 and 3 are not options at all.

5 would be up to the people of Iraq. We did not liberate them from Hussein to tell them what to do with their country. Some mistakenly call the current government a "puppet" of the US. but time and time again they have shown that they are willing to go against what the US government would have them do. So, while it's an option, it's not ours to choose.

That leaves 1 and 4.

Stay the course (1), with changes as tactically and strategically necessary (which would include 4) is all there is left. The problem here is, any tactical or strategic changes made are leaped on by the infantile wretches we call the House and Senate Democrats...

The enemy knows one thing for sure, you don't beat the U.S. Military on the battlefield. The only way any nation has ever tied or beat the US military is in the Houses of Congress.

Any leader who says we should leave Iraq with the job half finished is the best weapon the bacteria has in it's arsenal.

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I do not believe it is our responsability to create 3 new countries out of 1. I do not believe it is our right to do so either, who are we to take away what so many Iraqi people have lived and died for to call home?

It seems that James Baker agrees with me.

The Iraq Study Group, co-chaired by James Baker, the former US secretary of state, is preparing to report after next month’s congressional elections amid signs that sectarian violence and attacks on coalition forces are spiralling out of control. The conflict is claiming the lives of 100 civilians a day and bombings have reached record levels.

The Baker commission has grown increasingly interested in the idea of splitting the Shi’ite, Sunni and Kurdish regions of Iraq as the only alternative to what Baker calls “cutting and running” or “staying the course”.

“The Kurds already effectively have their own area,” said a source close to the group. “The federalisation of Iraq is going to take place one way or another. The challenge for the Iraqis is how to work that through.”

The commission is considered to represent a last chance for fresh thinking on Iraq, where mass kidnappings are increasing and even the police are suspected of being responsible for a growing number of atrocities.

Baker, 76, an old Bush family friend who was secretary of state during the first Gulf war in 1991, said last week that he met the president frequently to discuss “policy and personnel”.

His group will not advise “partition”, but is believed to favour a division of the country that will devolve power and security to the regions, leaving a skeletal national government in Baghdad in charge of foreign affairs, border protection and the distribution of oil revenue.

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5 would be up to the people of Iraq. We did not liberate them from Hussein to tell them what to do with their country. Some mistakenly call the current government a "puppet" of the US. but time and time again they have shown that they are willing to go against what the US government would have them do. So, while it's an option, it's not ours to choose.

They're hardly liberated. Sure, they're not under the rule of Hussein any more, but a lot of them are being forced to flee from their homes or be tortured and killed. The Shiites and the Sunnis hate each other and there's not a thing we can do to change that. The best we can do is separate them. The people of Iraq can't do that themselves. They're in the middle of a civil war.

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