I kind of go back and forth on whether we should get out of iraq. Sometimes i think that we are a superpower trying to build an empire and should act like one, we can decide to take control of anyone we want (of course they have a right to fight us for it), and considering that we can learn from the mistakes of our english colonial masters, and use international agencies like the UN along with powerful international corporations to develop our new territory, WHY NOT? Its still not too late. If we want to continue the mission, lets recruit/draft and train all able bodied men to fight and win and provide real security for the army of developers to enter. BUT...
today i was looking at some of the videos our soldiers have shot while on duty in iraq. Its quite disturbing. Our men have: a macho attitude, a wildwest cowboy lawlessness, a bloodlust - the pleasure from killing and destroying. When they are attacked or shot at, they seem to loose control of themselves, the cursing, the desire to destroy takes over. Sometimes you can hear a voice in the background trying to maintain control, but its drownd out by the cursing and shooting. In watching all of these I felt like there is something our soldier lack. an internal quality. for many of them, beneath all the toughness, all the training to fight, there is little there. and when they are not in power or control it becomes obvious.
Our enemies believe in something, most of them are fighting for a cause. Our stated cause of "democracy and freedom" is noble but we don't rally believe in it, its not what our soldiers are really fighting for. If heard them in interviews, when they are asked, why they fight, they say something like, "i'm fighting for the guys next to me". They fight because they are ordered to. They fight because they are paid to. Only physical and material needs drive them. Apparently this is not enough to win control of a territory. Our leaders and generals and military training institutions have failed to give them something to believe in. Our enemies have not. So, the only way to win this thing is overwhelming force, like the English did. Because apperently we are no better then they were.
McCain is right, we need to send more troops there, and we should not be afraid to say that we want to stay there for as long as we want. We are a superpower. we deem that controling that territory is in our best interests.
And it comes at a cost... less money to spend on things inside our borders, welfare for the needy of this country, corporate welfare for those industries we want to develop, and better schools for every american, and job training and child care for every american in this changing economy, and some tax relief for homeowners and parents. We can't do these thing AND fight this war to win.
We have to decide our priorities. And If a new president chooses to not prioritize an emperial adventure, then so be it. It is not a defeat or a loss like the republicans say it is. It is a change of mission. We have to be smart about the use of our limited resourses. We can choose to keep what we have control over and leave the rest for those who are loyal to us. It is not a declaration of defeat. It is a diversion of resourses to that what is sustainable and in our interests. We should not pull out entirely from the region. We defeated its ruler and claim whatever land we want as our prize, to do whatever we deem necessary to our interests.
We should allow the kurds to declare independance and keep our troops there. In the rest of Iraq we can do what the Muslims did when they first conquered the area. They built garrison towns. We should build our own fortified cities, and let our troops live there until they are needed for missions. In the other cities, all we need is to buy the leader. Let him to stay loyal or else he will suffer the consequences. He can send his police to our city for training. He can let our business build infrastructure. etc. If there is a civil war between factions then we can provide support to the side that will be loyal to us. Our support can come in the form of whatever is possible for us to accomplish successfully.
