Do Not Pull Out

Submitted by John R (United States), May 6, 2006 at 06:25

Thank god for this article -----

Mr Daniel Pipes, Sir

You seem to favour an immediate US military pullout from Iraq. Does that mean a total withdrawal of US troops from Iraq leaving Iraqis to rely entirely on themselves ? - or - a partial/phased pullout and maintaining a token military presence on Iraqi soil to oversee things ? Moslem countries have been perfect textbook examples of failed democracies. Here elections were conducted successfully only because of the active intervention of western powers. If the troop withdrawal is complete Iraq will be vulnerable to be taken over by a despot not unlike Saddam, or worse with its sizable shia population it may play into the hands of Iranians. If US just maintains a token presence in the region it may lack the muscle to correct things. Please let me know.

-Francis

DAN: The government would be on its own to sink or swim in the historically violent and unforgiving arena of Iraqi politics once described by Elie Kedourie, himself of Iraqi origins, as having a record "full of bloodshed, treason and rapine." If the government succeeds, it benefits from having done so on its own, not coddled by coalition troops.

And if it fails, Iraqis themselves – political adults, not wards of the coalition – have the burden to decide their country's future course………

ME: I am a bit confused here. Are you saying we should pull out of Iraq now? It seems so, given the context of the entire article.

What is the point of the Iraqi government getting credit if it succeeds in standing up against all local opposition? Yeah, yehey, we did it on our own!. Who cares, given the risk we face.

If it fails? If it fails, we fail. We have to ensure as much as possible that the Iraqi government succeeds. To have it fail and go back to a Sadaam style of government, or worse, would be seen as a failure of not only American effort but many countrie's effort through the coalition, a drawback, and again a threat to the security of the United States and the world, much so for Israel. We have to ensure as much as possible that this does not happen. Remember, if we do not even care about our own country's security or we do not care about the well being of the Iraq population, think of the security of this country Israel if another Sadaam Hussein surfaces again. Much more dangerous if it join forces with Iran, and this time in a nuclear age.

Are we willing to take the risk of pulling out now just to say the Iraqis are a bunch of adults who no matter whether their benign government succeeds or not, it is their responsibility? If the people in charge, the Bush administration and it's military intelligence, who I am sure have a very good grasp of the risks, and have information we do not know, say we should still stay, then we should still stay.

John R.

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