Rusted Sky

Not trolling... but here are the questions i'd like to see the numbers for. Seriously curious.

How do you see the country one year from now if the US pulls out tomorrow?

How do you see the country one year from now if the US remains?

Which would you prefer?

When would you want / expect the US presence to be withdrawn?

I've never once said that good things aren't getting done... and I'm glad the Iraqi's are optimistic. I'm just kinda curious as to whether they actually want us there or not, and I've heard rumblings from both sides but never seen a poll on it.

Follow the links, Rawb - I'm kinda busy with anti-spyware stuff today.

However, your questions -

We leave tomorrow, the insurgents will run wild, they'll see it as a 'victory', car bombs and suchlike will increase 10-100 fold as they try to carve out their little piece of the pie. And internationally the US word won't be worth a bucket of warm, runny, fecal material.

We leave in a year, in a phased withdrawl situation, as the Iraq army and police pick up the slack and get more people on line, and they'll make it. We'll have a small presence there for a long time (sort of a cane for them to lean on) but they'll need less and less support as time goes on.

Which do I prefer? Staying until they can walk on their own two feet, of course.

Think of a baby, just learning to walk. The little guy's going to take some pretty spectacular spills until he gets the hang of getting up on his own. He's going to need stuff to latch onto to pull himself up, he's going to need a hand to catch him and steady him. As time gos on he needs you (and support) less and less, until the little stinker can run faster than you can.

That whole area's been beat down to the point it's amazing they can stand, thanks to many decades of worldwide tacit approval of the dictatorships which maintained the status quo, and the hatreds such dictatorships have fostered. The UN complicity in this cannot be underestimated, too. After 9/11 Bush said, essentially, "Screw this, it doesn't work and it's the wrong way to do things anyway. Time to change that." We're helping them up, steadying them - and with every election they have, every vote cast, the people there get more confidence in their own power. And, worst of all, they're a damn bad example as far as the other local dictatorships are concerned. How can they convince their people it's for their own good that they're kept isolated and angry and hating the Great Satan when they can see free societies prospering just across their borders?

A hundred years from now, Bush will either be seen as a great humanitarian for bringing democracy and peace to the ME, or a great fool for trying to bring democracy and peace to the ME.

Time will tell which it is. But the next year is critical, both ways.

J.