I have read several people on this blog who are Democrats, but for some reason, seem to feel that US troops must be kept in Iraq. This is delusional & ultimately destructive of US interests. The war in Iraq was fostered by neocons in the Bush administration that thought that grabbing the 2nd largest producer of oil would allow them to use that oil for US needs. They also seemed to think that they could rework the whole Middle East by starting a crusade against the states opposing 'American interests.' Using depleted uranium shells & bombs, the USDOD was able to crush rapidly the resistance of the Iraqi Army & the the Republican Guard (but leaving Iraq so contaminated that both Iraqis & US troops will pay the price in 20 years.) Now, the Iraqi people are getting their revenge--all of them, Sadam, the Republican Guards, the Shiites, the Sunnis, the average citizen enraged by being humiliated daily by a foreign occupatiuon with troops who don't know their language & don't care to learn-- with a guerilla war that is slowly whittling the occupation down by one or twos or threes. (This also doesn't account for the wounded, which apparently in Iraq means losing limbs.) No one has talked about getting out, except for Dennis Kucincich. He says just yank the US troops out, & turn everything over to the UN.
This seems the most rational thing to me(especially since I lived thru the slow bleeding ulcer that was Vietnam.) Several people on this blog have stated that the US can't do this because somehow our 'standing' as a nation will be hurt. Are these people real patriots? Thoreau in his essay on civil disobedience said the best way a citizen could serve his country is with his moral sense. The best way a country can serve its' citizens is to not kill them in a war designed to profit the few. Since this is a democracy, we citizens have the right to say 'enough is enough.' Our troops are slowly bleeding to death. The Iraqi people are spurting blood from mortal wounds. To top all this off, our troops are coming home in invisible body bags due to the refusal of the DOD to clean up the contamination from depleted uranium use. (The Iraqis are birthing cyclopean & hydrocephalic babies.)
To live up to their moral duty to do what is best for the greater good of American, all Democratic candidates must support withdrawal of US troops, & handing over jurisdiction to the UN. The fate of Iraq will then be up to the world as a whole, and whatever will come will be better than anything cobbled together by just neocons from the US alone. This action, along with trying in a court of law all actors who propelled this nation into a preemptive war, will re-establish the good standing of the US in the world.
