I suspect these will not be popular sentiments in that I doubt it is widely expressed in these parts, but then I don't intend for it to be...
2 trillion in debt and a squandered reputation. How do you imagine the US can compete with other oil hungry nations flush with cash? We have one thing going for us, the ability to throw our weight around. Without that, where are we as a nation? Iraq is not Vietnam, it is far worse, for the very life blood of our society is at stake.
If our fevered dreams come to fruition, what is to stop the public from drifting back to a reformulated Republican dodge? Why should a world trust the US to maintain any course set by the Obama administration? Isn't the Sine wave of American history to oscillate between conciliatory wheedling and abusive domineering spouse? How many times will the world fall for our good cop bad cop routine?
I think it's time to take a long hard look at the basis of US influence in the world. The very essence of this American lifestyle we all enjoy is by necessity dependent upon access to relatively cheap fossil fuels. Everything from crop fertilizer to that plastic bottle you just threw away depends upon it. Our companies profit from finding and extracting it in other countries. Our government derives tax revenues from it. Try to imagine everyday life without it. I used to live that way and everything is so much easier this way.
But there's more, the value of our currency is intimately linked to the dollar through oil bourses and if some other currency muscles in on our action we will suffer a devaluation. If we want to keep foreign countries happily using the dollar, one might want to consider preventing devaluation and allowing petrodollar reinvestment schemes like the Dubai port deal, just to stay in our creditors good graces. Another way to maintain Arab appreciation (and petrodollar recycling) is to bully on their behalf, namely haranguing Iran and keeping the Persian menace contained.
If we pull out of Iraq and basically reformulate of middle east policy then we will not be able to maintain a lifestyle appropriate to our current infrastructure. Depression would seem like good times compared to the Weimar-like scenario we would create for ourselves. Is it realistic to think that the entire US can go through the precipitous transformations needed to change our current lifestyle with a downsized internally sustainable one? No, in short fashion people will be begging for Mountain topping in West Virginia to begin, for drill in Yellowstone, ANWR.
The active military is less than one half of one percent of the entire US population and only a small fraction of them have been hurt in the war effort. Getting volunteers for that effort, even if they are contractors, is much more likely than getting the bulk of Americans to sacrifice in order to drastically retrofit society.
Thus I advocate the Devil's arguement. That is the bald reality of our existence. while I disagree with it's very nature, I also see that we are trapped by our own success. Have you really thought through the long term consequences of US failure in the Iraq endeavor? Without a comprehensive and unblinking response to this challenge how can we take ourselves seriously? How much do you anticipate sacrificing for pacifist idealism and fair play? Even if we succeed in disentanglement, why should the world trust US? Why should we trust ourselves as a nation?