Remember when everyone was complaining about how “we” invaded Iraq for no reason? Well, guess what after several years were still there. I think the biggest thing military leaders forget when invading a foreign country is that often the people your invading don’t think your so great for “liberating” them. I mean well, let’s start with the basics, was there a good reason to invade Iraq? President Bush stated that Saddam Hussein had nuclear weapons. After we invaded US troops found no weapons of mass destruction, so either he never had them or Saddam hide them. In my opinion the “real” reasons were:

1) Create a American stronghold in the MiddleEast
2) Establish the first “Democracy” in the MiddleEast
3) Get easy access to OIl
4) Put pressure on the “terrorist” countries, Iran, Syria, etc

So, in the point of American interests, this was a good idea. We could manage to create another friendly country that was at the same time a Democracy and had oil that we could use. Almost like killing 3 birds with one stone! However, when you take over a country, especially a country like Iraq known for the guerrilla tactics employed by the local resistance fighters in numerous wars, such as the Soviet invasion of Iraq, why did the leaders of the US believe they could finish up the war by Christmas metaphorically speaking? Even with the utter complete destruction of the Iraqi army in Operation Iraqi Freedon, why did they believe they could pacify the country of all the Hussein supporters?

Not to mention that Syria and Iran didn’t take this invasion too lightly. They would have thought it threatened them, so just how do you ask that the current insurgents got their inspiration to fight from? Saddam Hussein? No, it was definitly Syria and Iran, what better way to keep one of the strongest militaries in the world busy fighting young men equiped with ak-47s and rocket launchers. I believe that the war is winnable, however how many casualties the US military will take in the process is definitly going to be on the high side. Also, the timeframe to change Iraq into a democratic country will take even more years, not months to complete. And with this recent war between Lebanon and Isreal, the insurgents have no better reason not to keep fighting.

Now I believe that if we were to retreat completly from Iraq, it would show the insurgents that the US military can be defeated not by another military, but it’s own government and people and from pressure from the fledging Iraqi government. Think about it, if were to withdraw, there would be a 100% chance of civil war happening then, even without the US troops as target practice, the insugents would instead destroy each other and the Iraqi government over control of the country. Would that be a good thing? Is that our goal? Is that worth the deaths of all the US troops? In my opinion no, even if we have to ride this one through, we must prove to the terrorists that the US government isn’t afraid to take them head on. If we don’t, the consequences are even worse then what’s happening currently.