Why do “you people” on the right seem most of the time when arguing the current war to reference ancient history—WWII, Korea and Vietnam—to justify staying the course in Iraq?
It goes without saying that troops still in Germany and Okinawa that had been there to protect the West from Soviet menace in Eastern Europe, and from China and Soviet designs on the Pacific rim, but now no longer serve a useful purpose and should be withdrawn but for those as a contingency of NATO inasmuch as the threat of another colossal skirmish, but for the cries of warmongers, has diminished—even the vast Pacific fleet at full strength has outlived its usefulness. These troops would be better honored by enforcing our borders or some to assist in Afghanistan.
We are stuck in Korea because the US seems ill-equipped or unwilling to negotiate through the truce toward unification and eventual draw down of US troops. We have no leaders to say, “Kim-Jong Il, tear out the barbed wire.” The “lost” cause in Vietnam attributed to “if only we had stayed a little longer” is sheer nonsense. Those Viet crazies, had all the time, driven by centuries of culture, to wear us down—as they did the French.
The same applies to Iraq because we let the crazies out of the bag, the Shia, and having no leanings toward democracy, to wreak their revenge and come hell or highwater establish a theocratic regime. To carry out a potent surge we would have to forge a reign of terror, almost as brutal as Saddam’s, across the hapless country. We don’t have the troops for that, and such tactics would further tarnish our already tarnished image, let alone the excruciatingly rise in casualties on both sides.
It is time to stop wasting our resources—human and matériel—and turn away from the Calamity Janes who are privy to Clytemnestra’s voice of doom that if we withdraw there will be total annihilation, which is unlikely; at worst there will be three partitions sniping at each other. Despite Bush, McCain, Petraeus the chaos has been with us and more in the shadows whether we stay or leave.
To honor our troops bring them home for they gallantly did all they could for a people glaringly unappreciative.