Is Phased Withdrawal of Troops a Defeat?

We have created an impossible situation in Iraq. If we leave there will be chaos and if we stay we will have continuing murder and bombings and abuses. The news that a bomb has exploded in a public place or that some innocent people have been kidnapped is an everyday occurrence. We need to hand over reconstruction of Iraq to someone who is not hated by the Iraqi insurgence and does not hate the US. I don't know if there is such an entity. The UN acts too slowly to adapt. Turkey? France? Saudi Arabia? Egypt? If we just leave, it will be worse than when we left Viet Nam. The expense of trying to maintain some semblance of order is incredible. If we were to send in a massive number of troops, we might be able to restore some order. But can we raise the troops? We could also break up the country along ethnic lines to try and stop some of the violence, but the people who would then control the oil rich areas would have an imbalanced share of the nations wealth.

Victory was always an assumed conclusion. Whoops, victory depends on Iraqis willingly embracing liberal democratic values, not on how many troops we have there. We can leave troops there for the next century, in whatever numbers, it isn't going to work.

We caused a civil war by going there to begin with. This is our fault. We should offer humantarian aid, but as far as troops...now it is time to leave. Shame on us thinking we are right. The conservatives should really remind themselves of King Richard and the Quest for the Holy Grail. Today's version is a little twisted though... Court Jester Bush and his quest for the Holy Oil.

After posting, I did think about what Alex said in another post. And no, I usually don't follow every link.

It's just disappointing that there's been this trend to US politics and the Iraq war that is so polarizing the readers of Neatorama. This is obviously the most discussed topic, as shown by all the comments. That is disappointing to me, because you can see that anywhere. You can open the page of any newspaper and see the same cartoons, the same verbal attacks, the same condescending hyperbole from both sides of the issue. Why should I have to read it here? You're absolutely right, I don't.

I've been able to ignore other Neatorama things I don't find of interest, so I will try to stay out of this one.

Alex is fair at presenting the issue of politics, but so many of the comments are angry, insulting, and hateful. Do you folks really hate each other that much?

I think that if you asked the average serviceman or woman, or their families, they might disagree with that repugnican cartoonhole.