Get This—Now We Are Worried About the Iraqis
by James Glaser
July 18, 2007

The new rational for staying in Iraq says that if we leave, there will be a blood bath there. I don't know if the people saying this know it or not, but there is a blood bath going on in Iraq right now

Every day, along with the list of Americans troops killed, there are reports of scores of innocent Iraqi deaths. Most days the number of Iraqis killed and wounded totals way more than one hundred. Several times a week that number goes above two hundred, and we have been seeing those kinds of numbers for well over a year now.

Two million Iraqis have left the country, and over a million have been displaced inside the country. With out a doubt, hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have been killed and wounded, and if we think a lot of our returning veterans are having mental health issues, imagine how many Iraqis have those same problems. Our troops have "safe time" back here in the States between deployments, while the Iraqi people live there 365 days a year, year after year.

Whatever we are doing in Iraq is not working, and it hasn't worked from the start of this war over four years ago. If we do leave, and there is a blood bath, most Iraqis will fail to see any difference from the blood bath going on now.

If we stay, I don't know how we can expect things to change as we are in the fifth year of spilling blood. If we leave, there is at least a chance that the killing will stop.

Think about it—if a foreign power were occupying the United States. Would you quit fighting them, or would you keep on until you were dead or you finally kicked them out? I think I would keep fighting, and I think the Iraqi fighters feel the same way.




Free JavaScripts provided
by The JavaScript Source


BACK to the 2007 Politics Columns.