war thoughts

[alonewiththemoon]

I never approved of going into Iraq, but once we were there, I thought we ought to stay until the country was back on its feet and we'd fixed all the stuff we'd broken--kind of a you break it, you buy it approach.  I still think that would have been the right thing to do, if we had been willing to treat Iraqis as equal or greater partners in the process, thereby employing people and getting the economy going.  But obviously the coalition of the willing was not willing to let Iraqis really join the coalition.  At this point, after reading news reports and Iraqi blogs and interviews with all sorts of involved parties, I honestly think the best thing would be for us to get the troops out and be supportive from a distance.  I think at this point the US presence is provocative and is detrimental to creating a stable Iraq.  In my ideal dream world, we would withdraw the majority of our troops, keeping a well-guarded embassy open, and provide consultants to the industries, utilities and businesses of Iraq to help them get the electricity running, the schools open and safe, the buildings rebuilt, the general populace employed,  etc.  And, of course, we could use all the money we'd be saving by not supporting troops over there to help those industries, utilities, etc get started. 

I am dreaming, because in my little dream world all the Iraqis would band together out of civic pride, and it's probably too late for that now.  But still, I read of 300 Iraqis killed in a single weekend, 300 human beings characterized as thugs and talked about as though they were rabid dogs put down for the safety of everyone else, and it's hard to see how things could be a lot worse.