It's Time to Leave Iraq

It's time to bid farewell to the Iraqis: The Iraqis to whom we freed from Saddam Hussein's barbaric grip. The Iraqis who are Muslims and are now free to kill each other in a religion-based civil war. I read the headlines today that recounted the murderous vendetta unleashed by Shiites against Sunnis in Tal Afar. More than 60 people were killed, and I'm sure the body count will go higher.

What's particularly disturbing to me is that Iraqi police went on a rampage and, along with Shiite Militants, roamed Sunni neighborhoods in the dark of night. They shot up the city, shooting at the residents and their homes. This revenge killing was sparked by massive truck bombings in the city, ostensibly carried out by Sunni militants. Some of the relatives of the murdered Shiites in the truck bombing went into Sunni homes and dragged the residents into the streets and killed them. So it goes, tit for tat in Iraq.

Hey, if you can't trust law enforcement officials to defend and protect you, who can you trust? And that brings me to my conclusion that we have nothing more to prove or gain by maintaining U.S. troops in that sorry Country. Picture yourself living in a U.S. city. Suddenly, one night, there's gunfire outside your home. The police are shooting at your house and militants break down your door, dragging your father or husband or child into the street to be executed. It's not too hard to visualize the horror in that scenario.

I believe we should pull out of there, but not for the same reasons that the Bush-bashing Democrats offer. Even if Iraq was peaceful, their pathologic hatred of Bush would still contradict whatever he proposed. However, there comes a time when you have to take a hard, cold look at risk management and cost/benefit. Well, the time is now and the risks of further U.S. soldiers remaining in Iraq is far too great and the benefit is zero.

I am not a hippie nor a liberal activist. By way of background, I served 35 years in the United States Air Force, including a tour in Vietnam. I also voted for Bush, both times. He has, however, irritated me to no end on various policies. I don't hate the man, I just disagree with his stubbornness on this matter. He claims the terrorists will win if we leave. I think it's clear that the terrorists and the religious zealots are "winning" anyway, turning Iraq into a boiling cauldron of intolerance and ideologies. The end result will be another stone age, radical Islam country that will form an Islamic megalopolis from Iran to Syria. Bush and intelligent advisers don't want that to happen. I agree with that premise, but it will happen anyway regardless of how many troops we have over there.

The Iraqis were given the chance to live free and elect their leaders in a Democratic fashion. In a way, they reached that point with their national elections. It looked hopeful at that time that maybe, just maybe, they would live in a harmonious relationship with the three factions: Kurd, Sunni, and Shiite. Since then, they proved they can't. They worship the same God, but are hell-bent on murdering each other in Allah's name.

Forget about us saving face. Forget about what happens to Iraq after we leave. Just get the hell out of there and spare our troops from further maiming and death. We've lost too many good soldiers so far in this experiment. Their lives were not wasted, though, as they freed the Iraqis from a brutal dictator and gave them the opportunity for Democracy.

Concerned about the aftermath if we pull out? Our intelligence agencies can keep a close watch on that area. If terrorist training camps sprout up, then send in the B-52s and carpet bomb them with 1,000 pounders. See how many more will pop up after that.