iraq

Submitted by Dennis (Canada), Oct 27, 2006 at 14:36

Absolutely excellent advice!

I've held this view myself for some time and I'm glad to see that someone of your stature is getting this message out to the mainstream media.

Since day one of the invasion, I always thought that the objectives were far too broad. "Stay until the job is done" seems to imply staying until Iraq is a happy, prosperous, tolerant, peaceful and law-abiding society. That will take generations and Americans should not see this as their duty.

I've always taken exception to the idea that American soldiers should be deployed on "hearts and minds" tasks, such as building schools and water treatment plants. That, to be frank, is someone else's department and is something that soldiers are not normally trained to do. It also distracts them from their main job of providing security and hunting terrorists.

While it can be reasonably argued that Saddam was a threat to the strategic interests of the United States, necessitating military intervention to oust him, the civil war raging in Iraq today which mainly consists of settling old scores amongst its inhabitants poses no such strategic threat. America should make it clear to the Iraqi government that dealing with the violence is primarily their responsibility and that the hand-holding has to end.

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