Are the financial needs at home enough reason to withdraw from Iraq?
Submitted by Susan Young on Mon, 03/17/2008 - 19:10.
With predictions of a deep and long national recession looming, are the financial needs here at home reason enough for the U.S. to withdraw troops from Iraq?
The fifth anniversary of the invasion will be marked on Wednesday. The U.S. has spent $3.3 trillion to invade, occupy and police Iraq, substantially more than the $50 billion the
Bush ad-ministration estimated in 2003. Whether or not the mission is noble, is there a point at which pressing financial needs in Maine and the U.S. are more critical, and
dictate a reallocation of the money?
When will policy makers finally know that it is time to bring the troops home?
Yes Withdraw & Impeach!
Yes we should withdraw. I can't believe Bush is allowed to spend that much on a war! I didn't realize that he was an absolute power! Why aren't our elected officials doing anything to control his spending? We the people will suffer his war hungry ego. What can the people do? Impeach him or something. Before we all go down with him! He is the shovel that is burying us in debt and we are letting him!
Christine of Perry
Iraq Withdrawal
Withdrawing from Iraq should happen because it is the right thing to do. We should never have invaded in the first place. As for the financial conditions - whether we stay in Iraq or leave, we'll be paying for this for a very, very long time.
Reasons to withdraw from Iraq
There are many reasons for withdrawal of the troops from Iraq. Is the financial cost of the war and subsequent cuts to social programs a valid reason? Yes absolutely. There are however other equally and perhaps more important reasons.
First, this war/occupation was pre-emptive and thus illegal under international law. If we want to fight terrorism in the 21st century we are going to need the cooperation of other nations. If we want Americans to respected abroad then we need to join the world community and this includes abiding by international laws not acting like a lone cowboy. The old saying that if you want to be respected first you have to respect others applies here.
Second, this war in not noble and that does impact the outcome. The reasons for this war/occupation have changed from revenge for the September 11th attacks, to removal of weapons of mass destruction, to the fight against terrorism, to removal of a brutal dictator (Sadam) and then to liberation of the Iraqi people. Well the master mind of the attacks (Osama Bin-Ladin) has never been found. No weapons of mass destruction have been found. Sadam is gone. Iraq is in a mess and the people less free than when Sadam was in power because we have destroyed the countries infrastructure, created extreme poverty, killed hundreds of thousands and pillaged the countries natural resources for the multinational corporations to profit from. When the American people including the troops and their families get past the propaganda and see what a difficult and dangerous place the troops have been put into for no clear reason, no clear goals and perhaps even worse corporate greed, they will refuse to fight or refuse to return for a 2nd or 3rd tour; and when people rise up and demand an end to this war/occupation because it is less than noble - that is when the troops will be withdrawn.
The third and main reason to end the war is because it is simply not the way to solve problems. It creates more problems than it solves as demonstrated by the situation in Iraq at this moment. Iraqi is engaged in a brutal civil war which we precipitated. Our troops and their families are dealing with the physical and emotional wounds created by the war experience and our communities are dealing with dwindling resources and cutbacks to social programs. Regardless of the actual reason(s) for this war/occupation we have to start developing alternative paths to solving problems. We cannot fight terrorism with wars which only create more terror - it just doesn't work. We must begin actively preparing for peace and this means diplomacy and refocusing our economy. If your economy is based on war then war is what your going to get because you profit from it. If you prepare for peace, make it profitable in some way, then you just might get closer to peace.
reasons to withdraw
Since they have not said, as you point out, what sent them there, I am free to come up with one on my own.
I do not see the war as "ill-conceived," myself. You have to look at what has actually been done. I think they got just what they wanted out of the venture, up to a point.
To begin with, Iraq was going to go to the Euro. Once sanctions were lifted, Saddam had arrangements with France, Italy, and a couple other countries for oil. NO UK arrangement or contract, NO US one either.
Iraq did not open its resources for the multinationals, as so many have, elsewhere around the world. There was no "Come get it, boys" attitude. Iraq kept its resources nationalized. They had also become the most locally powerful army in the region.
Now, it's the dollar, not the Euro. No French contracts, no Italian, all UK and US. Resources are privatized. Trillions have been taken out of the country.
Trillions more have been taken out of tax money, in the form of contracts to 'rebuild.' Though no rebuilding has been done, except projects by the Corps of Engineers and military units. What the "rebuilding" was, anyone will tell you, was those dozen megabases. The superfortress of an embassy complex, the two gigantic bases around the airport, which were built toward one another to form one really huge complex called Camp Liberty. And so on. These things cost a minimum of half a billion apiece to make. They are not called permanent bases, because there's a law that they cannot make permanent bases. They split hairs. After all, what isn't temporary, in this world, if you look at it cosmically?
So they have slathered themselves and their selected friends (no-bid, remember) with many trillions of money, removed the offending Saddam, and punished Iraq for what it did.
It is now not only not a regional power, it is a shambles. They destabilized the place completely. They tore the water system apart, gutted hospitals, demolished electrical services. There's no clean water, no power, no medicine, hardly any doctors, hardly any schools, and so on. Trashed! This was deliberate, and part of the plan. It'll take at least two generations of intense work to rebuild it to where it was. We punished Iraq, and made an example.
No one in the region will now refuse to privatize, or try to run things for themselves, or especially try to become a power, if we tell them to lay off. They have seen what we will do, if they try. And we did not wait for international support, we just did it, and to hell with the consequences. Very powerful message.
And now we have a dozen megabases. We are not leaving those for the Iraqis. They are placed atop the world's best dome of crude. Iraq will have oil for twenty years, after everyone else is tapped out.
Iraq is centrally placed, and from those bases we can strike widely throughout the area, if we need to. This is empire.
Yes, they underestimated the vehemence and strength of the resistance. That was a mistake. But for what they gained, 4000 dead soldiers is a very cheap price. Look what we paid in Vietnam or Korea, for no gain at all!
If we "withdraw" it will be down to the level needed to man those bases.
Now, as to reasons to withdraw? The only good reason would be to renounce empire. Both parties are dominated by empire builders, and so that won't be easy. Kerry, remember, was running on supporting the war. Like McCain, he just thought it had been mishandled and deserved more troops. Since 98% of the country voted for Kerry or Bush, 98% of the public seems, on the face of it, to have supported the war in 2004, since both men did. Nader ran against the war in Iraq, and he was against empire, but no way would any liberal vote for him.
It makes me tired to hear liberal comment that the war was criminally misguided, when it did exactly what they wanted it to do. Look at what happened, and think: who does this benefit? Open your eyes.
The way to get out of thid war and dozens more like it, the only way, is to stop trying to build an American free-trade empire.
WITHDRAWAL FROM IRAQ
The financial implications of this war are ceratinly a good reason to end it immediately. After all, the total cost of this war is estimated to eventually be as much as three trillion dollars. It has already cost the people of Maine one billion dollars, while many of our citizens cannot afford to heat their homes, buy their medications, drive their vehicles or have access to adequate medical care.
There are many reasons, however, that this war should be ended immediately. Our trooops, who are in danger of being killed and maimed because of the lies of the president of the United States should be brought home. Innocent Iraqis, whose loved ones have been slaughtered, whose homes have been destroyed, whose country has been pillaged, whose economy has been ruined and whose culture has been virtually extinguished brcause of the greed, deceit, stupidity and incompetence of the current administration deserve to have their country back and our occupation ended. In addition, our own security and safety is more fragile than before this war, and our occupation seves as the primary recruiting tool for terrorists in the Middle East and around the world.
There is also the moral issue. The heinous acts perpetrated by our goverrnment in the conduct of this war - needless killing, unlawful detention of prisoners, the torture of prisoners held without charges, illegal tapping of phones - have been perpetrated in our names. The world, which once respected our country and looked to us for moral guidance, now sees us as the villains. It will take more than ending this conflict to regain our moral standing in the world, but it would be a good start.
Dan Lourie
Port Aransas, TX and
Bar Harbor
time to stop living in a fantasy
Even if this war cost us nothing, we never should have invaded a sovereign nation that posed no threat, something the Nazis did and then labeled any resistance to their presence "terorism." However, it is costing us a great deal, especially in the maimed, physically and psychologically, men and women returning home from an obscene war. It is time for the American public to realize the important choices that confront them: creating security at home by providing decent housing, health care, education and job opportunities for their fellow citizens, or continuing a foreign policy that has earned us enmity around the globe, cost us dearly, and enriched some psychopathic individuals among us who have no conscience and no concern for anyone or anything except their greedy, twisted selves. Americans have been living in a fantasy for a long time now, thinking they can remain untouched by the suffering of fellow citizens and the suffering we have all too often helped to create in other nations. I believe that we are an innovative and creative people, and we can create a country that cares for its own, truly supporting democracy and decency around the globe, and leading the world in tackling difficult problems such as global warming. But it is up to us. Our leaders only reflect who we are, and it is not a flattering picture.
more to the point, it's time to get out of the empire business
I'm afraid the costs you mention do not loom very large for these people. They see the war as being completely in the interest of America. For, what is an American interest? As we now define the term, it is the profit and well-being of a primarily American business venture. Period. We toppled Allende for Anaconda copper, we defended a sugar company by invading Haiti. That's what an American interest currently is.
Even you only mention the costs to American troops and citizens. Once you widen your concern, once you notice that everyone else in the world is also a human being, the cost of this war is heartbreaking.
As long as we pursue empire, we will create these humanitarian crises, wholesale, just as we have been doing. And we will do it with a good big Army and Marine Corps, because the jobs are gone, here. We will likely continue to do it with private mercenary armies like Blackwater. They brought Blackwater back to the US to keep the population in control during Katrina. They could easily function as the Pretorian Guard.
The balance of power has shifted radically toward the executive, and the secret police apparatus is being created, right now. If you're really serious about change, you should realize that there's a lot that needs doing.
You point out that the incredible money the war cost could have done a lot to improve life here, in America, where we created some of the wealth that was taxed to pay for it. Just because the war stops, don't expect these people to begin doing that kind of thing with the money. Not unless you make a good many other changes, starting with restoring the American republic.
Not an amusement
War is a serious reaction to an international exigency, or a matter of simple self defense. If the war is a good idea, then you go ahead; if a poor idea, then you don't. War is not like a trip to Vegas or a living room set. We are not at war because we have the extra money, and should not abandon a war for the reason that it's too expensive right now.
Defeating Hitler, for instance, was likely a good idea whether we found money tight or not. I mean, the country declared war on us! You can't make someone stop warring on you because you find it inconvenient to pay for the bullets this week.
By contrast, Iraq was not worth a penny of our money at any time. No sensible reason to start it was ever offered, and it's damaging everyone involved, including us (unless you held stock in certain corporations which made a pile of money on it, of course). If the country were rolling in money and all of us rich as Croesus, we should still stop.
Iraq Withdrawal
Karen Saum
We have more than enough reasons to withdraw from Iraq. As needed services are cut, local taxes raised and infrastructure continues to crumble, perhaps popular unrest will finally force the government to declare the war won and order the troops home.
Only Reason Will End War
There is no reason in war, only in its abolition. Continued deficit spending by our government, whether it's underwriting the wholesale murder in Iraq and Afghanistan or global corporate profiteering, is sure to have lasting and devastating impacts on our children's children's children.
As for when policy makers will know to bring the troops home, I'm afraid that Haliburton, Boeing, Lockheed-Martin, Raytheon, Exxon and all the other interests conjoined to the Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex will see to it they never know. But those who love our neighbors as ourselves have always known that it's long over due to bring the troops home now, to completely extricate the U.S. and all of its corporate interests out of Iraq, to stop the dehumanization of our Muslim brothers and sisters and to begin the generations-long process of reconciliation.
Kelly Bellis
Ellsworth
Financial Needs
I don't believe that we should be trying to withdraw from IRAQ because of financial difficulties at home. The reasons why we are in IRAQ have not changed and we are coming closer and closer to being able to withdraw troops and reduce expenses in IRAQ. In the end we will have another friend and ally in the mideast (which has been having difficulties since 1947). Our cntinued presence in IRAQ will also assist us in being a moderating factor on IRAN, which is a potential hotbed of disruption to the entire area. It will cost a great deal more if we retreat, just when we have made significant progress, only to find ourselves enmeshed in another incident with another redical country next door to what could be our future potential ally.
Financial reasons are
Financial reasons are certainly enough to end the war, but of course the most important reason is to just get our troops home safely. We will most likely have an investment in Iraq for years to come, but if we can drastically lower the amount of money spent over there by only leaving a small force there then we'll all be better off.