25 Apr 2018 Should We Walk Away From Iraq?

Should We Walk Away From Iraq?

This is actually for all the countries of conflict; Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.  We have been at war with some or all of these places for 15 years.  What is in our national interest to continue there?  Well for one we started things in Iraq, so we need to see it through to stable country.  It may not be how we intended things to turn out, but we need to say it is better off. 

People need to understand that we are still in Germany, Japan and Korea with very large forces 70 years after the conflict.  I am not sure it is direct comparison but it does give you a perspective of how long we stay places.

We should walk away from Afghanistan.  It is a collection of tribes vice a unified country.  I do not see an end to that tribal culture no matter how much we think we can change things.  It is not going to happen.  I don’t want to say that the cost and loss of lives was in vain, but we had the worlds permission after 9-11 to go in there and take out Osama Bin Ladin.  We completely misunderstood how that “country” worked. Great Britain tried to rule it in the 1800’s and failed miserably.  Russia tried to rule it in the 1980’s and failed miserably.  If we had studied history, we should have known we weren’t going to change this.  However, our ego as “leaders of the free world” got in the way of reality.  We need to just let that country be how it wants to be.

As to Iraq, the place was never a unified country.  Only by a dictator was it held together.  It really is three countries, the Kurds in the North, the Sunni’s in the middle and the Shia in the South.  We should just accept that is the reality over there and divided it up accordingly. Life would be much better for everyone if that were to happen.  We should only have the minimal forces over there that are necessary to support that transition.

As to Syria, another country that is held together by a dictator with help from Iran and Russia.  We have no idea who would support us if we got Assad removed from power.  Would a more radical element take control?  Who knows?  And that is key, nobody knows.  It is going to take an international coalition to change things there. We need to let Russia and Iran know we will not let them dictate the terms.  The stakes are too high for that.  Their goals are not in the interest of Europe, the US and the rest of Sunni Middle East.  This is a place we need to stay.  It may be hard at times to define victory or even progress but stay we must.