A Thinking Reed

Bring the Troops Home Now (?)

Written by

Lee M.

in

That seems to have been the message of such anti-war demonstrations as there were this weekend to mark the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. As an opponent of the war I might be expected to sympathize with this message, but I’m far from certain that this would be the best course of action.

Relevant concerns include whether a withdrawal would lead to (more) chaos and perhaps a civil war. It doesn’t seem that domestic Iraqi security forces are anywhere near to being up to speed to maintain order.

Now it would be nice to send in a multilateral UN-sponsored force to oversee the transition to full Iraqi autonomy, but it ain’t gonna happen. Other countries aren’t exactly itching to send troops in (and who can blame them?). Much as it pains me every time more U.S. troops are killed, I’m not sure that staying on isn’t the best available option at this point.

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2 responses to “Bring the Troops Home Now (?)”

  1. Marvin

    There’s such an air of unreality to this debate. The antiwar left says “Bring the troops home now,” while the right says, “Not today, but ASAP.” I think the reality is that we’ll be there 50 years, like the Philippines after the Spanish-American War, or like Germany or South Korea.

    I wish these organizations had used the second anniversary of the war to say or do something else. Anything else. So what’s a constructive proposal for making peace in Iraq given where we are right now? I’m not sure.

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  2. Eric Lee

    I too want the troops to come home, but even people like Juan Cole, whose opinion on matters in the Middle East I respect quite highly, says that pulling out of Iraq right now would be a bad idea. Granted, this was a couple months ago that he was saying this, but I don’t think really much has changed since then to warrant any change of opinion.

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