We shouldn't cringe from using American power to change a nasty part of the world. There are no alternatives to force at this point; there may have been in 2003, but not today. The wrong policy is leaving the middle east in the hands of fascists religious fundamentalists. That's exactly what would happen if we pull out of Iraq too soon, if at all. As Democrats, we can barely stomach the fasists religious fundamentalists we have here (Republicans) but we are willing to let millions of people in the middle east live under those conditions? Fuck that.
What are our choices? First, we could split from the middle east and let the chips fall where they may. Is this a good idea? No.
This option would be an unmitigated disaster for humanity--nevermind US "interests." The likely result of a US pullout would be triumph for fundamentalist religious fanatics and totalitarianism. Do we so despise the Republicans, do we so wish their humiliation, do we so reject American power that we would risk the rise of totalitarian regimes supported by fundamentalist religious ideology enslaving millions of people across the middle east? Is it not bad enough that fucking "mullahs" run Iran? Is it not bad enough that Wahabi-whatever-the-fuck-ism rains supreme in Saudi Arabi? The whole middle east is stuck somewhere between the stone age and civilization; women run around covered head to toe in black, children are taught that Israel and the west are satanic, huge families control whole nations and enormous wealth is concentrated in the hands of a few bored princes. And we tolerate this? This is the condition that we wish to see continue--so Bush and his cronies look like fucking fools? I reject that completely. Yes,
Bush lied to get us where we are today. Yes, his administration totally fucked up the war's aftermath. Yes, he and his crew should be ridiculed. But, this doesn't, nor should it, necessarily mean that we give up on our military adventure in the middle east. Far from it--we have an opportunity to change that part of the world for the better, forever, at the point of a bayonet if need be (and need, indeed, be for it).
Lets look past ideology and domestic politics and take a look at what the neo-cons intended to do. At its core, the plan was to install a western style democracy at the heart of the middle east so that, eastern european style, one by one the totalitarian regimes surrounding the new Iraq would be transformed, particularly Iran. A bold plan delivered in disguise and executed so incompetently that, truly, those that devised it should be jailed.
But, the central idea is a good one in light of the alternatives. Let us turn now to those alternatives---there are no longer any alternatives to the use of force; the regimes where, and continue to be, so corrupt, the conditions so poor, the potential for terrorism becoming an institution and a fundamental way of life in some of these countries so great, that the only way to make any change is to force it, by the sword.
And so here we are; Iraq in ruins and 140,000 soldiers of the Republic planted squarely in the middle of the nutsack of the world: the middle east. Where do we go from here? We didn't nor would we have put them there. Nevertheless, there they are, and they can't come home tomorrow without disastrous consequences. Can't Democrats come up with a bold plan of their own besides abandon the project altogether? Why, all of a sudden, are we so isolationist? These regimes, this part of the world, is so backwards that we cringe when we hear of some of their practices. I am in favor of using American military and economic might to change the middle east for the better, forever. In the absence of any PRACTICAL solutions (Israel cannot be moved, nor can Israel genocide the arabs off the face of the earth), force seems to be the only solution