How do we leave Iraq?

[Whoozyerdaddy]

First... We're already there. We've already made the mess. Answers that run along the lines of "We should have never gone in... illegal war..." Things like that don't help. We're there. Right or wrong we're there.

Second. I've never been a fan of this war. My first reaction when Dubbya said we were going to Iraq was "Why?" My second reaction was "There goes any bump we might have seen from the tax cuts."


So what do we do?

We could just pull out. But I'm pretty sure everyone agrees that would be a humanitarian disaster equal in scale to all those other humanitarian disasters in Africa that the West ignores every day. I don't think we can just walk away from our mess there without incurring even more violence than the average Iraqi citizen has to put up with on a daily basis.

Stay the course? Use our troops as glorified police officers and watch the trickle of bodies that come home every month... that would be status quo. Washington could repeat the statistics of how every one of us dead equals 100 (or whatever) of them dead.

Rotate in UN peace keeping troops? *Glances at the make up of the UN security council* Nevermind...

So what do we do? I don't have an answer.

Real answers... what is the suggestion? How do we get out of this mess with the least negative future impact on the Iraqi people while somewhat preserving stability in the ME?

 

[Drift3r]

There is no solution that will be nice and clean. Sorry that won't happen with the current and more then likely future state of affairs in Iraq. We either "Stay the course" until Iraqis start dragging dead bodies of our G.I.'s on the street with a large crowd of their fellow Iraqis cheering along. Or we leave now and cut our loses and watch as the country sinks into civil war. Either way it's not going to be clean, nice, or anything other then a giant mess because that is what happens when you create a clusterfuck. The best thing we can do is get out quickly and never repeat the same mistake again which lead us into thinking that our nation is some sort of empire/ foreign nation builder. Any solution is going to result in tons of deaths and the outcome will not be the Pro-US/Pro-Israel Iraq wet dream that NeoCon-men were trying to sell to us.

 

[magomago]

Move American troops to the border.

You get out of the way of the average populace because our prescense is inflaming them more than not.

And we can seal up the border (well the parts that have major traffic and is passable...no one can trek through empty desert) on the country from all sides so we know exactly who is or isn't coming out...and any suspicious characters are barred from entry. This way we can cripple the logistical support of insurgency groups in Iraq...of course at this stage I'm sure they are churning things out on their own, but it would nevertheless play a role in crippling direct support that Iranis and Syrians could provide their agents within the country.


I think that is a good idea - We won't be in the face of the average Iraqi, and we'll be right next to Iran and they'll have to think twice about sending some of their elements into the country, or even attempt to provide them with anything physical - we'll force them to use the Internet And at the border troops can enforce more stringent rules - no longer do you have to worry about blowing up apartments in Baghdad - the rules would and should be VERY strict at the border.

This is probably the only realistic idea I can think of while still trying to help the country...and considering how bad Iraq is right now, I think cutting it off from its "neighbors" is most likely a good thing until the situation can get stabilized.

It will satisfy the average Iraqi who could probably stomach a longer American presence in their country if the troops were moved to a border, and it would drastically reduce American deaths by not putting them in a tough position where they are essentially sitting ducks.

What do you guys think?