Pullout from Iraq
Although I generally tend to disagree with the majority I have to admit that I am in agreement with them one the subject of pulling out of Iraq. I do, however, have a very different reason for thinking this way. Most people want to get the soldiers out of harms way or want to stop the bloodshed there. How the latter come to the conclusion that removing the only group that is trying to prevent an escalation of the violence can achieve the stated goal of recucing the bloodshed is entirely beyond any faculties of reason that I possess but there you have it.
The way things used to be was that you conquered a country and then you ran it, or installed a puppet government to run it if that was more expedient. Obviously the government in Iraq is completely unable to run the country so that leaves only the former option which is not acceptable in this enlightened age.
As this will not work I think that the coalition forces should be pulled out. Both sides causing the continued conflict in Iraq have declared themselves to be enemies of the coalition (“crusaders” seems to be a popular local term for them) forces and of western culture in general.
Both sides are also expending more effort against the other factions than they are against the coalition. Napoleon always held that one should never interrupt one’s enemies while they were making a mistake. I think we should get the troops out of there and stop the interruption.
Well said, but I have a slightly different take on the situation.
If the soldiers were allowed to be soldiers then the ‘war’ would be winnable. Like you say a soldier’s job is to defeat the enemy, not to be some sort of compasionate policeman.
To call what is happening in Iraq a war is totally wrong. It is a police action and as such can go nowhere.
Instead of prosecuting soldiers for offending the delicate sensibilities of the very compasionate and peace loving Iraqi terrorists, IE the entire native population of Iraq, give them the authority destroy the enemy. Only then will it be a war, and only then can there be an outcome.