Hold the elections, then get out

[Horse with no Name]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1390308,00.html

Most of our partners in Iraq are preparing to leave. We should too

Robin Cook
Friday January 14, 2005
The Guardian

The biggest surprise of the White House announcement calling off the search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq is that there was anyone still out there looking for them. The rest of the planet has known for over a year that there are no WMD to be found in Iraq, and that hunting for them is just as eccentric - and even less interesting - as poring over arcane codes in the hope of unearthing the holy grail.
>>>>snip
Perhaps Tony Blair should reflect that if so many countries have concluded that their presence in Iraq is not helping, they have a point. The reality is that the heavy-handed application of US firepower does not offer peace and security in Iraq, but guarantees an increasingly strong and violent resistance. The majority of the civilians killed under the occupation have died at the hands of American ordnance, not terrorist bombs, and every civilian killed breeds another 10 insurgents. Falluja has been reduced to rubble and its residents to refugees, with the predictable result that the resistance has not been weakened, but strengthened.

[Matilda]

1. But if the troops leave,

who will make sure the oil is in the right hands? By which we mean
US hands, of course.

And somebody has to man the bases they've gone to so much trouble
to build.

[bluestateguy]

2. I could more see Britain announcing a pullout

A few weeks before Blair is up for re-election, he announces that all British troops will be out of Iraq by the end of the year.

[Journeyman]

3. They *had to keep looking* until after the Election. . .

to hide the truth of their deception from their "base."

[cornermouse]

4. "Hold the elections, then get out"

Works for me.

[renaissanceguy]

5. Me too.

We shouldn't have been there in the first place.
http://www.cafepress.com/liberalissues.16472020

[malaise]

6. Election?

An election is taking place? Looks more like a stupid, useless farce with one aim - making the looting of Iraq's resources legal.

[Sgent]

7. Wrong!

We cannot abandon the country.

We broke it, we fix it. I agree we should leave, but to completely abandon the new government, and the rest of the country, to civil war, is unconsionable.

100,000 iraqi dead is nothing compared to what will be left in a power vacum.

I don't want to be there, and I think we are f*cking up royally; however, I am not prepared to abandon innocent people...

[malaise]

8. The US and UK are going

to pay big time for this illegal invasion. It violated every notion of international law.
Which is better though - killing innocent peple or abandoning them although I find your choice of word rather strange since your government's actions do not suggest that they give a damn about Iraqi people. It was always about Iraqi oil.

[Moderator]

9. Editorial