What is the justification at this point for keeping U.S. troops in Iraq?

[begin_within]

And what is the counter-argument to it?

[rodeodance]

1. saving 'face'

[leftchick]

2. if we bring them home we will get another 9/11

so said Gen. Meyers yesterday.

[leftofthedial]

3. argument for is essentially inertia

argument against is sanity

[sabra]

4. both Blair and General Myers yesterday said, that if we leave

another 9/11 will happen.

it's full throttle right now...

[Dhalgren]

5. If we pull out now, there is no way that the fascists can spin it in

their favor. It can only be seen as conformation of Kim Il George's failure. So, it won't happen. More and more US troops will be killed and maimed for life; and more and more innocent Iraqis will be killed and maimed for life - all just so Fearless Leader can keep his fantasy going for a little while longer. Everyone in this mess is dying for the ego of one little, demented man-boy. If it were just for corporate profits, they would pull out now; diminishing returns and all that...

[jobycom]

6. We have to teach them who's boss

Unfortunately, i think they've already figured it out.

The main two arguments for staying are to make sure Iraq is stable before cutting and running, and to not show a weakness that the "terrorists" can see as a loss, thus making them bolder.

The arguments for leaving are that we are just causing death and destruction over there, we should have never gone in to begin with, and no matter when we leave a civil war will break out, so we are only prolonging the inevitable.

My own personal belief is that we should pull out but stay in some form, such as handing control over to a UN force for peace keeping, while removing the US government's presence. I think that would undercut the motivation of the insurgency and still provide some protection for the government trying to form over there. Our goal should be what's best for the Iraqi people, but all we are really worried about is how to not look bad, and that's where the problem comes from. Also, we should continue to spend our obscene war funds on IRaq, but as donations to help them rebuild, not as payment to our own corporations in the form of no-bid contracts or as military spending.

If we had just spent all of the cost of this war on aid to rebuild Iraq contingent on Hussein leaving and certain human rights conditions being met, we could have cleaned their nation up without all the death, and without empowering Al-Queda.

[Career Prole]

7. Dunno...it's too late to stop troops from "dying in vain".

They've been dying in vain since March of '03.

If there had actually been WMD's it could have stopped in the summer of '03 and nobody would have "died in vain"...

If it had actually been about bringing Saddam to justice it could have stopped in December of '03 and nobody would have "died in vain"...

If it had actually been about bringing democracy to Iraq it could have stopped after the elections in January of '05 and nobody would have "died in vain"...

If they keep insisting this shit will put a stop to global terrorism they have ALL died in vain.