I might not have made myself clear in my last blog. The Iraqi people were grateful when we came in and ended Hussein's rule. However, that was 5 years ago. Now, I want you to just imagine how the Iraqis feel about having another country's military force in their country for 5 years. While terrorists are coming and attacking our troops, who do you think are in the background? The people. Even though more than 4000 of our troops have died, have you considered how many people where caught in the middle of the fighting and the suicide bombings? Second, the U.S. has spent about 700 billion dollars on the war in Iraq. Here is a article that describes what 700 billion dollars can be used for.
Kia,
Obama plans to remove the troops in a 16-month period. However, he wants to have a small faction of our troops to remain, in order to continue fighting terrorists, aid the Iraqi government, and train the Iraqi forces . However, he does not want to build a permanent base in Iraq.
Merritt,
As it stands now, we simply can't cut the funds of our forces in Iraq. Cutting funds would mean a serious evacuation and we just can't do that due to the status of the Iraqi government and its forces. By now, it is already too late to abandon Iraq. Iraq has ultimately changed from the inside out. There is no doubt that Iraq can be very valuable in our War on Terrorism due to its oil, location of the country in general, and the fact that it is right next to Iran. I feel that we need to focus more on capturing Bin Laden, since we started this war in order to stop him.
Grace,
I feel that our withdrawal is necessary but not a full withdrawal. I feel that we need to cut down our forces in Iraq in order to cut down on the cost of the war. As I have stated above, we simply cannot leave Iraq in the state that is in. However, we can decrease the number of forces we have there.
Last night was the second Presidential Debate between Obama and McCain. For the people who have missed it, I suggest you watch it ASAP. I felt the main focal point was our economic situation, due to the effects of the Rescue Bill the last couple of days. Still the candidates were able to talk about about other major issues, including the war on Iraq. McCain strongly supports going into Iraq and states that Iraq will be a great ally in the Middle East. As you can see on this map, Iraq is in the middle of the Middle East. To have Iraq as an ally would allow us to keep tabs on the surrounding countries, especially Iran. McCain felt that our troops were doing an excellent job and stresses on bringing the troops back home. Obama opposes the war in Iraq. He mentions how the war in Iraq drew away from us stopping Al-Qaeda. He feels that Iraq took too many soldiers from Afghanistan and used up a lot of our federal budget which was widely spread out and still is. We hear more about Iraq then we do about Afghanistan. Yet, we have soldiers still looking for Bin Laden in Afghanistan, even though their numbers are much lower than when the War on Terrorism began. However, if you confused about what I am saying, this video on a part of the Presidential Debate will help.
3 comments:
Revan,
I like Presidential Debates, but I thought Tuesday's Presidential Debate was relatively boring because of the debate's "town hall" format and the relative lack of direct exchanges between Barack Obama and John McCain. Iraq may be a good ally in the Middle East, but America must pay more attention to Afghanistan. Speaking of Afghanistan, how much money has been spent on the War in Afghanistan? Also, do you think that the money used in Iraq, given the global financial crisis, justifies the return of American troops back to the United States?
Tommy
Revan,
Thank you for the post. The problem that I have with both of the candidates and the Iraq issue is that they both seem a little unrealistic, McCain more than Obama in my point of view. On one hand McCain wants to stay in Iraq keeping up the surge and spending billions a month. Also he wants to pursue Bin Laden and with the current state of our democracy, I believe that it is impossible for us to be able to maintain our funding for both wars. On the other hand Obama has set up a sixteen month withdrawal plan. Although I think Obama’s idea better, if we leave Iraq too early we will see a raise in violence as the Sunni, Shiite, and Kurds fight each other for control of the country. If we leave Iraqi forces unprepared to deal with this then a civil war is imminent. This civil war will not remain domestic as Iran will support the Shiite and Arab countries will support the Sunnis, so a regional conflict will emerge which will be even more detrimental to US interests.
At the moment we are in a very difficult situation, which we shouldn’t even be in. The choice to enter in a war with Iraq when at war with the Taliban in Afghanistan was one of the worst decisions an American president has ever made. McCain supported the war with Iraq and Obama was one of the brave minority that did not support the war. So in the end, although I cannot see a positive solution to our problem at the moment, I am more willing to trust Obama than McCain in dealing with Iraq. Thanks again for the post.
Reg,
I agree with Kia. Leaving too soon would cause and uproar and all of the different factions would just have their way with Iraq. However, if we stay we lose all of this money that could be used otherwise. In both options we lose. Is there a third or fourth option where America can atleast gain some benefits or have we just screwed ourselves over too much to even get any perks?
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