I used to think that, but now I'm not so sure.SwiftSpear wrote:It seriously enrages me how much talk of pulling out there is going on right now. WOW, THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT THE WORLD NEEDS, A POLITICAL VACCUME IN THE MIDDLE EAST! I'm very far from a right winger, but as a human being who is not evil I don't see how there is any ethical ground for pulling out of Iraq.
The problem is that the Arabs (Sunnis) and Persians (Shiites) have been sorta like the ARM and the CORE, locked in an eternal struggle since like forever ago. For both sides the only acceptable outcome is the complete elimination of the other. [edit]It was probably actually started when the Shiites split from the Sunnis... sort of like the ARM splitting off from the CORE... [/edit]
Saddam was Sunni, and he persecuted the Shiites. Now Saddam is gone, along with his strong government, so the Shiites and Sunnis are yet again free to kill each other. And we are now the government that is trying to stop that, and they want us gone.
So staying in Iraq and trying to build a strong government that still allows freedom is fighting an uphill battle. A strong government is possible, but it would end up like Saddam's regime, and depending on who is in charge it may harbor terrorists. And many if not most of the Iraqis want us gone, and they are turning to terrorism to get us out. Which is bad for our soldiers.
But completely pulling out would be bad, bad, bad. There is a lot of oil in Iraq, and we want some control of it. Also, eventually one side would win in Baghdad, and it would probably set up a Saddam-esq regime to retain power. Or even worse a Taliban-esq regime, as what happened when Russia pulled out of Afganistan.
So I think the solution is to just divide the country in three. Shiites in one country, Sunnis in another, and then just start formally recognising the Kurds as a country in the north. Because there is really no good reason for any of Iraqs borders; I believe it was created to give some Arab king who helped us in WWI a place to rule.
But I don't know how best to get from the current state of Iraq to three stable seperate countries.