Should America Leave Iraq?

Recently my liberal friends have been raising their voices about getting America out of Iraq. I myself was against the war in the first place or at least against rushing to war. However, pulling troops out of Iraq at this stage would be like pulling a first-string quarterback out of football game in the fourth quarter just because he is sweating. It’s just bad strategy.

The Iraq war was poorly planned and executed; most people would agree with that I think. Unfortunately we are in the war and we cannot change that. You cannot go into reverse when your car is already going 60mph in drive. You could put the brakes on and wait for the car to slow down before going into reverse but if you slam on the brakes too fast the car behind you might hit you. That is how the war in Iraq is. We need to put on our brakes and eventually go in reverse and allow Iraq to be a sovereign nation. Leaving too quickly could be a cure that is worse than the disease.

Becoming a sovereign nation that can run itself is not going to be an overnight job though. It will take time. No one is sure how long it will take and that is why setting up timetables for leaving is backwards thinking. But becoming a sovereign nation also requires the people to take part of the government and control of their own military. They have taken great strides in doing this but there is a lot of work ahead and progress has been impeded by continuing insurgency.

One of the main things that need to happen is to get the international community involved in Iraq. This is not a new concept, but nothing is being done to get the world involved. If we allow the entire world help in the rebuilding of Iraq it will be a strong push against insurgents showing them that it is not just the US and UK who is behind all of this; the whole world is.

Another concern of mine is the amount of money being put into Iraq. What happened to the idea that Iraqi oil would pay for all of our troubles? Somehow the government has to find a way to balance fighting a war and paying for war. The best way to do this would have been to get the international community involved in the first place to share some of the costs of rebuilding. Of course America has the money to do all of this, but is it really worth it to the American people? To continue our campaign in Iraq we need to find secondary sources of funding since the original ones are not working. The question is whether or not the current administration will be able to accomplish this task.

So the obvious fact is that there is no simple solution the Iraq problem. But I do find that it is obvious that we should not pull out of Iraq before they can run their own government. To do so would create more problems then solve. My only hope is that our current leaders can get this job done right and bring our troops home.