But...but...how'er we gonna spread democracy aroun' the world if we go an' take out the troops?
My opinion on this topic is very undecided. Events from the past raise questions about what the right thing to do is. Consider Vietnam. It was a war that solved nothing. America lost about 60,000 men from that war for essentially nothing. We kept sending "advisers" out there in Vietnam to fight the war to keep North Vietnam from spreading their communism to South Vietnam. America wanted to get rid of communism and replace it with democracy. After a while, America said, "Hey, if you leave South Vietnam alone, we'll get out." And so, they did. But...as if North Vietnam would agree to that! So what they did was go and spread communism throughout S. Vietnam. Vietnam is a total communist country now...and heck, America was winning the battles over there.
Then there was Bush senior. He set a time frame to get the troops out of there and he did. The troops went in, took care of what they went in for and got the heck out. Later, the country went back to being the way it was.
If the troops got out of there now, the country might go back to being chaos and anarchy.
Perhaps Bush feels that for this job to be accomplished, they cannot leave or there would be another Vietnam instance. Maybe he feels that after losing so much men, to leave now would accomplish nothing. Democracy has not fully swallowed the country. It has always been America's goal to spread democracy around the world.
Perhaps also, Bush feels that by taking our troops out, another "Holocaust" would erupt and by us staying in there, we are keeping the country from that level.
However, if we don't get out, we are losing more and more people and what have we accomplished? People are getting killed there every day and we have this war lasting on and on and the support is starting to diminish even. To keep the troops in there is killing people and there is no absolute guarantee that this war will end how America wants it to. To get out now is to save Americans now and let Iraq go to waste (so believed). Without them under a democracy, they won't be a "good" country in the eyes of America and would still be considered a threat. Would that therefore endanger American lives in the future? Probably not considering how well advanced America is.
But the war in Iraq is more than just what we see. Consider the Cold War. That was another fight against communism. There we had America trying to shove democracy down Asia's throat and they were against it. The Cold War can be compared to this war also in that it was America going into another country, trying to force on them what America believes to be economically advanced and development that helps the country, and that country being against America trying to tell them what to do.
This whole thing is far more involved than any of us could possibly know. Probably more involved than some of the troops even know. There are so many things that Bush is thinking, that congress is thinking, and what the common minds (us) are thinking.
If I had to make a choice right now if I could either leave the troops in there or get out, I would probably go insane as I honestly have no idea what the correct answer is. It is all about prediction and strategy.
One thing I do know is that we have no control over what happens. If Bush wants to keep the troops in Iraq, we should support the troops. There are people out there refusing to lend any support to those fighting over seas because they feel Bush is wrong. Well okay...so what if Bush is wrong? The troops in Iraq are not the ones making the decisions Bush is and are only under the commands they are given. Don't stop giving them support because of what Bush is doing. Those people are going through more than any of us could know and if they don't have the support of America, it makes it that much more difficult for them. It's okay to not support Bush, but I honestly believe it isn't okay to just stop supporting those fighting for us.
I know what I hear through the media, peers, gossip and family but that is not all of it. I do not know all what this war is and neither do any of you. Not many people know at all what everything in this war is about. Since everyone fighting this war have different agendas centering around what we all know about the war, we cannot possibly know it all. It is therefore too difficult to define stable opinion on the matter - for me at least - since I don't like to make my mind up about such a highly controversial issue unless I have all the facts...ALL of them.
