Staying The Course

What will staying the course in Iraq give the American people?

1. We are already at 3000 dead since September 11th and 20,000 wounded, many horribly maimed and disfigured. Who is safer Mr. Bush? I'll grant you that we have not had Americans killed on American soil, but is that truly a measure of success?

2. The Iraqi deaths have been at least 10 if not 100 times that of Americans. Saddam was a brutal dictator, but that has never been a reason for the U.S. to go to war.

3. Our continued presence in Iraq will simply delay the inevitable. Once a dictator loses his hold on an artificial nation, it must break up. The Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds lived together in peace only by decree and with the threat of force. We managed through our Civil War without outside interference, so too will Iraq.

4. This fatal course started when Paul Bremer dissolved the Iraqi army and fired all members of the Baath party. The insurgency started soon after these mistakes. The de baathification was similar to denazification after WWII. We soon discovered that not all Nazis had blood on their hands and that most were simply Civil Servants trying to get more pay and better jobs. We ended up putting thousands back in their old jobs to the ire of the Russians. Didn't we learn anything here?

5. And finally, staying the course will cause even more Muslims to hate us worldwide and drive more out of work, forgotten, young Muslim men to join groups like Al Queda and other hate groups. We have to look at the sources of this hate.

The Bush/Rumsfeld/Cheney way:

Shoot an insurgent and another takes his place
Rape a Muslim woman and 100 men and boys become insurgents
Remove a dictator and a functioning nation falls apart
Destroy an entire Civil Service corps and trained army and 300,000 armed men become insurgents
Force young American soldiers to drive through the streets of Baghdad and insurgents hone their skills our our men and women.
Forget about the promises made to Afghanistan and the Taliban gains a foothold


An Alternative Course for Iraq

Build a school and child can learn right from wrong
Improve a road and a farmer can get his crops to market
Restore electricity to cities and rural areas and people have access to information and basic necessities
Hire only locals for jobs in their nation and eliminate unemployment
Repair water and sewer systems to show the population that you truly care
Talk to your enemies. Silence gains nothing