So, with the president saying we will withdraw all troops from Iraq what's your take?

Personally I think this is a huge mistake! We left Iraq once and had to go back....

I think we will be back in the years to come with twice the disaster we currently have there now...

Solutions? How about turning Iraq over to an Arab coalition of troops.. Saudi Arabia, Egypt, ect.....

Kris

History has shown that the various ethic and religious groups in the region hate each other as much as they hate the West and Israel. Read the Patton Papers for an education of what happened during WW2.

Agreed! And as another note, whomever votes : who cares : might want to reconsider their vote as we will all care when the blood of Americans is shed correcting the mistake...

Kris

The US will be back. Those people have been fighting each other since Abraham. They will be fighting when the world ends.

If we dont end it no one will.

We will be back.... And it's sad that my son or my grandchildren will shed their blood because the job was not completed for whatever the current presidents reasoning is....

Wirelessly posted (hope is everything!)

As stated they have been fighting for thousands of years. Can we really expect them to put aside their differences so quickly?

I believe it is a mistake leaving I think it is a bigger mistake stating a public timeline for the withdrawl

With all do respect, I think the who cares option blows, I bet you would care if a draft was started and you where picked!

But yes, we will be there to clean it up....again.

I put the *who cares* option there for a reason... I wanted to see how many people would really click that option without thinking that their children, grand children, brothers, sisters, ect will shed their blood later in time because we pulled out to soon...

Kris

Kris, please dont pull that on my behalf, I think it is a good thing you put that up... maybe the people that "Dont care" will see how many do and open their eyes.

For some reason I thought it said he was pulling the who cares option...

what is the idea of job done? do you remove one whole group of people from the country? I doubt there is any way for the US to fix the country of Iraq, same situation with Israel, there is no way for the US to fix the Israel / Palestine situation. These people have to fix their own nations, the US cannot do it for them. so then my answer is half that they will be fine & half I don't care. The US does not need to be the World Police that we have been.

Im sorry I read your post wrong Kris, carry on!

I agree... BUT............

Should we withdraw and leave the country to civil war? OR should we leave responsibly? We are responsible for Iraq... We invaded it, we removed it's dictator from power, we..... ect...

The responsible thing to do IMHO, is to turn it over to an Arab coalition....

My .02

Kris

The war on terrorism won't end with a troop withdrawal in Iraq.

We are in this for at least a generation or two. Think in terms of the Cold War. It won't be won soon, and it won't be over soon. We are not fighting one country or two. Obama knows this, the most pacifist of congressmen know this. And it really is a fearful thing to know our kids and grandkids will be very very likely fighting this same war.

If anyone here thinks the war on terrorism (or that Obama thinks...) will be over soon, you really have very little clue about the fragile global situation in which we reside.

what arab coalition? that arab coalition would include iran, lebanon & Palestinians (hamas)? That does not exist and would take forever to setup and lets just say its not in our ally's (Israel) best interest to help form a Arab military coalition.

I agree that it has to be done responsibly and do not doubt that the Military leaders will accomplish this. Obama and staff have said that they are flexible depending on the Generals guidance, so I see no issue with getting out as they see fit. The Iraqis have said the same thing, that the 16 month goal is reasonable with conditions, same as Obama has stated.

I 100% agree. It will take time but I do think that another similarity is that it will not be won on any battlefield. To me we won the Cold War by both outspending the USSR & culturally showing that our system provided a better way of life for people. The first part of that will not work here, so the focus needs to be on the culture.

Respectfully disagree!

An Arab coalition of *responsible* Arab nations could be assembled... To turn Iraq over to the numerous factions is pure suicide, and a future invite for us to return IMHO...

Kris

but those numerous factions do have to take over eventually, do they not? so if we leave and put an arab coalition in charge then the situation will become friendly? well that almost sounds like our presence is no longer helpful.

Iraq as a free nation is still in it's infancy... How long did it take us to leave Germany?

My point.... It could take 10 to 20 years for Iraq to become a productive and stable nation... If the US is not committed to seeing this through, then turn it over to the nations that will be effected by Iraq's failure to govern itself...

To turn an infant loose on the freeway is irresponsible.... Iraq is still an infant in the big scheme of things....

Kris

I agree that it could take many years but the difference is the germans were not fighting each other when they were divided. Korea would be a better example and we have been there for 50 years and it has not worked out so well. I agree though that it will certainly take time but I think we do not need to have troops there during that time. I mean we all know that we will have "consultants" and CIA people there as well as selling billions of $$ in weapons to the government, that to me is enough.