Oil Ask You Once More.... Please Leave

I do like Steve Gilliard's rationale for having our troops escape from Iraq.

...Any attempt to expand the Army will come way too late to solve our troubles in Iraq. We need 3-500K men on the ground today, not three years from now. You don't send two battalions to take a city the size of Albany. You send a division to do that. You had a division in Fallujah, there would be sniping, not fighting and a cease-fire. We don't have a division to send there. We will not get a division to send there. We may have problems getting the First Marine Division home. We need to negotiate with the clerics and leave Iraq. We cannot win there, the people are not on our side. If they were, these guerillas would have no support, no food, no ammo. Instead, they are embraced by the people. What is the US waiting for? A massacre of a rear area unit? Bremer's assassination? Every time Bremer speaks for the Iraqi people, he lies worse than Saddam. There has been scant evidence that the Iraqi people want us to stay. Some want us to kill the criminals we unleashed, others just want us to leave, most are pissed that we haven't made them rich. The right doesn't get it. The Iraqis they get lied to by tell them that they want all these things. But the people in the street don't like us or want us there. If they did, the cops and ICDC wouldn't run at the first sign of conflict with the guerillas. They have killed Americans. Take that as a hint. Anyone who exposes themselves as working for the US, not just CPA, but media, risks assassination. Is that support for the US? We are failing in Iraq. Our mission, our war, lies in shambles. How many more Americans and Iraqis have to die before we decide to walk away?

Steve so far is the only high-profile blogger I've found whose views are close to mine, with regards to just dropping our weapons and getting the hell out of Iraq. Everyone else says that if we do that, the country will erupt into civil war, blah, blah, blah, and hundreds or thousands of Iraqis will die. Forgive me for interrupting, but how is that any different than now, with dozens and soon hundreds of new dead American G.I.'s thrown in for good measure? The ONLY solution to this complete screwup by George W. Bush is the replacement of our army in Iraq with a U.N. peacekeeping force. Sure there will be some isolated battles and unrest amongst the religious factions, but nothing like what's going to happen very soon if we don't do the right thing.

Dennis Kucinich has been spouting this line for over a year now, and its about time someone with the power and influence to change things heeds this advice. It really isn't all that complicated, in spite of what all the political pundits say. If the current plan isn't working, then you regroup, gather new facts and then put into action the best solution (which in this case is: get the f*ck out of there). The solution is obvious, and it's been so since long before Mr. Powell sat in front of the U.N., held up his toy antrax vial and proclaimed Iraq a grave threat to the world's existence. It's been painfully obvious only to those who are too proud and selfish to admit their mistakes

The ONLY reason we are still in Iraq is because there is money there in the form of oil that Bush and Cheney just flat out want. The Iraqis and American soldiers are getting maimed and killed ONLY for the opportunity for Bush and Cheney to keep their pockets filled to the brim. Why won't any of you people admit it?