Not So Easy to Withdraw
| By ACDC - Nov 15th, 2005 at 11:45 pm EST |
I disagree with Ezra Klein's piece on withdrawing from Iraq. If we leave immediately, it leaves Iraq vulnerable to an attack from Iran, or at the very least, continue infilitrating insurgents across the border (along with Syria). The United States, if nothing else, is at least keeping some control on the border and buying the Iraqi government time to figure out a more permanent solution.
The counter-argument is that if U.S. troops leave, then insurgents will nothing to fight against and will diminish--but given the lack of legitimacy of the Iraqi government (American puppet?) and the interests neighboring countries may have in keeping Iraq weak and unstable, that's not a guarantee. All in all, a bad deal for the Iraqis.
You could argue that at the very least, it'd be good for us because it means our troops wouldn't be in harm's way. I don't really buy that.
First off, it erodes what little American credibility we have left within the region--creating the image that America really doesn't care about democracy in the region, thus dashing the hopes of democrats from Egypt to Iran. And all other things equal, Bush is right when it he says democratic states are less of a threat to the United States. Democratic states integrated into the global economy are especially very unthreatening.
Second, failing to learn from Iraq has implications much broader than beyond the Middle East. Like it or not, Iraq is not a fluke. There will be other invasions and in some cases, there should be. American military intervention in Darfur may be desirable at some point, especially if the UN continues to fail to act and the African Union continues to act so slowly. Yet peacekeeping in Darfur is not substantially different from nation-building in Iraq. If we can't get the latter right, how we can do the former? In that sense, calling it quits on Iraq condemns Darfur to the horrors of genocide, in the same way that Clinton's disaster in Somalia sealed the fate of Rwanda.
But how can we win in Iraq? That's a toughie. The first thing to do is stop thinking in terms of withdrawing or staying the course. Neither results in victory. I'm no expert on military doctrine, but what we can do is experiment. Try withdrawing from certain areas and seeing how violence in those areas increases or decreases. Pull U.S. troops trained to kill out of Iraq and put in troops trained to nation-build. If we don't have the latter, create them. I don't have details, and I know it's not a satisfying answer, but withdrawing from Iraq isn't the easy way out it's portrayed as.
The counter-argument is that if U.S. troops leave, then insurgents will nothing to fight against and will diminish--but given the lack of legitimacy of the Iraqi government (American puppet?) and the interests neighboring countries may have in keeping Iraq weak and unstable, that's not a guarantee. All in all, a bad deal for the Iraqis.
You could argue that at the very least, it'd be good for us because it means our troops wouldn't be in harm's way. I don't really buy that.
First off, it erodes what little American credibility we have left within the region--creating the image that America really doesn't care about democracy in the region, thus dashing the hopes of democrats from Egypt to Iran. And all other things equal, Bush is right when it he says democratic states are less of a threat to the United States. Democratic states integrated into the global economy are especially very unthreatening.
Second, failing to learn from Iraq has implications much broader than beyond the Middle East. Like it or not, Iraq is not a fluke. There will be other invasions and in some cases, there should be. American military intervention in Darfur may be desirable at some point, especially if the UN continues to fail to act and the African Union continues to act so slowly. Yet peacekeeping in Darfur is not substantially different from nation-building in Iraq. If we can't get the latter right, how we can do the former? In that sense, calling it quits on Iraq condemns Darfur to the horrors of genocide, in the same way that Clinton's disaster in Somalia sealed the fate of Rwanda.
But how can we win in Iraq? That's a toughie. The first thing to do is stop thinking in terms of withdrawing or staying the course. Neither results in victory. I'm no expert on military doctrine, but what we can do is experiment. Try withdrawing from certain areas and seeing how violence in those areas increases or decreases. Pull U.S. troops trained to kill out of Iraq and put in troops trained to nation-build. If we don't have the latter, create them. I don't have details, and I know it's not a satisfying answer, but withdrawing from Iraq isn't the easy way out it's portrayed as.
!
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My friend, let's call her Robin, just returned from Iraq in the end of June. She was a "nation-builder!" They did "psych-ops" to "win the hearts and minds" of Iraqis, while building schools, medical clinics and the like.
She enlisted because she thought she could do some good through the Army, while paying for college. However, she was forced to take out a loan to pay for her first semester because her military financial aid was denied. Also, because of the trauma of being in battle, she is now dependant on anti-depressants, which she was receiving through the Army, and now is unable to procure from the VA. She had to get her own insurance through the school and go to the school health center and pay for her own meds.
Is this how we support our troops? Send them off to die and then leave them to fend for themselves once they return?
To continue calling anti-war protesters "unpatriotic" is completely disgraceful. The war hawks are the ones that sent them off to die, and then completely forget about them once they return.
We must show America that Progressives have what it takes to truly support our troops.
I agree with Eric in that we've lost the opportunity to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people. Technically, we lost that when Abu Ghraib reared it's ugly head, that was the last straw. So our policies on torture have permanently damaged our ability to attempt nation building in Iraq. And probably in many other nations. I am now an advocate that the United States must withdraw itself permanently in assisting in Nation Building projects until we investigate and review this latest debacle in the Middle East and in Afghanistan. They are both miserable failures.
Keep in mind too, our troops in Iraq are trained killers, they are not trained peace keepers. And the refusal of the United Nations and NATO, or even our allies to contribute troops, especially Muslim nation troops, is indicative of the failure of our leadership to think ahead strategically in securing the nation of Iraq and lobbying Iraq's neighbors on a consistent basis. It raises the question overall of exactly what their REAL intentions were in Iraq. You just can't screw up this huge and expect these type of questions not to be asked.
TMH