Iraq War Exit Strategies (Part 1)

In 'till we win (G.W. Bush), orderly exit (most Democratic and Republican candidates for office), immediate and safe withdrawal (Military Families Speak Out), immediate withdrawal-screw Iraq (too many voices, with no logical plan)... These are the sentiments I most frequently hear amongst my friends and associates. So which strategy is right? None of them or all of them?

Without defining what 'win', 'orderly', 'immediate', or 'safe' mean, how can any of these policies be the best or most appropriate one? Mr. Bush seems to define a win as achieving all military and nation building objectives, at whatever the cost (because we have to stop the terrorists over there, before they come here). Our Senators and Representatives would like to define 'orderly' as whatever politically expedient way they can show support for our troops without tipping over the basket of eggs, that represent our sorrowful diplomatic status with the rest of the middle-east and radical Islam. Military Families Speak Out (MFSO), an organization I belong to, takes a very diplomatic approach to 'immediate and safe' by wanting an immediate conclusion with the reality that we will not, in the near-term abandon Iraq, and that significant withdrawal would jeopardize those that remain. The 'screw Iraq crowd is just to uneducated about reality to spend the time trying to categorize their position.

I am not a great enough mind to develop all of the arguments on each side of these issues. But I will make some observations that color my view of the obvious arguments and how we should approach them. First, we do not live in a vacuum, and therefore for every action there will be an equal and opposite reaction. Second, like the sign on a fine china shop says on the door, 'You break it, You own it' (I only wish Mr. G.H.W. Bush had taken G.W. to one of those shops). Third, but probably not last, 'You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink'. Enough of the adages, I think the point is served, that our Leadership has undertaken choices which have an impact on our Soldiers and the American people, and will have a long lasting effect on us.

Our concerns with the war is little served by the question of 'should we have entered into a war in Iraq'? We already broke it, and now that we own it, what are we going to do with the million shards of hate, distrust, dishonesty, dis ingenuousness, deceit, and corruption that have evolved. The piece we broke was not a pretty piece (after all Saddam Hussien will go down as one of the most brutal dictators in the modern age), But it was the piece that held together the collection of all the vying parts of secular and sectarian forces together.

Perhaps, a greater issue, is the affect our decisions have had on the middle-east, in general, and our ability to deal with radical Islam, specifically. For it was radical Islam that was the rallying point of our President, that led us into this quagmire. 'Fight the terrorists over there, before we have to fight them here'. At least that was the excuse, after WMD was eliminated as a righteous excuse for invading a sovereign country. With Saddam invading and declaring wars on Kuwait and Iran, he at least proved that he was an equal-opportunity despot. His Sunni centered Baath party waged war on Sunni dominant Iran, and he was able to mollify the Shii' majority in a Sunni ruled dictatorship. What other stabilizing affects he had on other secular oriented Islamic kingdoms may be far beyond our Western understanding. What is clear is that every thing we have done to insert ourselves in the middle-east, either to support Israel against Palestine and Jordan, to support an illegal overthrow of the government, by the Shah of Iran, or to gain favor with the Saudi by selling weapons in return for bases, to monitor and control Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bosnia, etc. etc. etc., has done nothing but inflame Muslims, regardless of their secular distinction. When we push one way, an Islamic force pushes back another way.

The last issue is 'nation building'. We are so naive to believe that the method we have adopted to rule our country, is so superior that it is absolutely intuitive that every other country in the world would benefit by our form of government. Democracy, in any form similar to ours, has only existed for a mere three hundred years amongst the French, English, and US. Hundreds of cultures, thousands of countries for five Milena have existed for more consecutive years, than our form of democracy. We have been quite successful showing that other forms of government don't work, but we have very little evidence that we know anything about how to 'install' our form of government. That would say to me that what does work is much more dependent on culture, than ideal. And, at best, the most we can hope for is an amalgamation of what is culturally acceptable to those that are governed, and the ideal of how those that are governed should be respected.

In Part 2 of this post I will discuss some specifics of how other's portray our strategy and how they predict that strategy will affect our ability to extricate ourselves from this debacle.

Military Families Speak Out

I joined this organization, due to my deep desire that my Son, and the sons and daughters, wives and husbands, of the troops, serving in Iraq, do not have to give a single ‘unnecessary’ life. But I am conflicted, as I am sure many patriots are as well. Not to say that those that who believe we should bring all of our troops home tomorrow, are not patriots. We all have different perceptions, but by virtue of the fact that this site is oriented towards Military families, we all have in common the facts that our loved ones volunteered, whether it be for personal or altruistic purposes.

Our country is founded on the basis of fair and equal treatment of all of our citizens. And when our country has inserted itself in other countries’ political and socio-economic battles, we have done so in a fair and honorable manor (at least we would like to think so). With that said, our own megalomaniac leader contributed to the overthrow of another megalomaniac leader. The only difference is that we like to think that our leader is benevolent, where we know that Saddam Hussein was anything but. The fact remains, though, that we did what we did, and cannot in fairness, walk away, with honor.

With the change in power of our legislature, to a democratic majority in both the house and senate, and the great likelihood that a democrat will occupy the White House after the next election, it is still unlikely that we will have an immediate and total withdrawal of all of our troops in the immediate future. With MFSO's mission statement in mind (A safe and orderly withdrawal of our troops), the key to orderly withdrawal is the definition of orderly; and the definition of safe is dependent on what we do to react to the terrorists that have inserted themselves, in the absence of secular rule that was deposed by our invasion of Iraq.

In previous posts I have tried to profile some of the issues that we face in order achieve an honorable end to the conflict we have inserted ourselves in. I have also shown battles, successes and failures, and talked about the options for long term strategic success for both our troops and the Iraqi people.

I want my son home, safely and uninjured. But, he enlisted, and re-enlisted, not for my expectations, or lack of. He has his own objectives. I only want the purpose to be just, honorable, and egalitarian. I support the goals of the MFSO organization, please support mine and allow opinions to flow freely as to how we achieve those goals.

The organization 'Military Families Speak Out', I feel, is a good forum. The problem is that the forum is quickly becoming a forum for those that feel that there is no resolution to the conflict other than an immediate and total withdrawal of all of our troops. This I feel, dishonors our country and the brave troops that have given their lives, and the troops that are still putting their lives on the line.

It is not our presences in Iraq that we have to have an immediate end to. It our presence without any goals and objectives or strategic planning that we have to end. That will only happen when the Bush Oligarchy is deposed and sounder minds are installed in the White House.

Get you opinions heard, join Military Families Speak Out (MFSO, and let them know how you feel.

Dennis