AMERICAblog: Iraq is Terri Schiavo

[RSchewe]

(snip)

And the Weekly Standard is right. If we leave Iraq, all hell will break loose. But we still should leave, and here's why.

1. Iraq is a mess.

2. If the US leaves, all hell (more hell) WILL break loose, as described by the Weekly Standard, above.

3. But if the US stays, all hell will still break loose. We're not winning the war, 85% of the Iraqi public wants us out, 45% of the Iraqi public wants us dead (these are true poll numbers), US military deaths are increasing rather than decreasing, and our continued presence has been a boon for Al Qaeda recruitment and training.

4. The US military occupation of Iraq is simply prolonging the inevitable. Iraq is going to fall apart at the seams, with us or without us - it's only a question of when.

5. Thus, the debate isn't whether we should or shouldn't let Iraq fall apart. The only question we need to settle is whether it's worth the price - in terms of both US military deaths and the benefit our presence bestows on Al Qaeda - for the US to help prolong Iraq's certain death.

Iraq is Terri Schiavo.

Already dead, living on borrowed time, but the Republicans refuse to accept the inevitable. Yes, you can prolong the patient's life for decades. But at what cost, and for what real benefit?

The day a Republican responds to THIS argument, rather than simply saying "but Iraq will fall apart if we leave," that's the day we start having a REAL debate about Iraq in this country. In the meantime, the Republicans will keep scouring the videos for signs of life in a patient who's long-since checked out.

more...


http://americablog.blogspot.com/2005/11/iraq-is-terri-schiavo.html


Strange analogy, but in a way it sort of makes sense. The concept of holding on, just to put off the inevitable.

[FloridaPat]

1. They said the same thing with Vietnam. 20 years worth of talk and

44,000 dead US soldiers and 4 million dead Vietnamese civilians. I personally want our soldiers home now and the bill given to the repubs and Halliburton for the whole mess.

[catmother]

5. i believe it is 58,000 dead soldiers and yes you're right, but i'm

starting to hear things about viet nam. just about an hour ago, some repub on the radio said "look what happened when we left viet nam -- a million people were slaughtered". so i guess we should still be in viet nam killing and being killed.

[FloridaPat]

6. I don't remember hearing anything about that after we pulled out.

Anyone have a link to a story about that? Since the source was a repub, I am not going to believe him until I see it in writing somewhere.

[catmother]

7. no i never heard it back then either. not just yesterday, but a

few times i've heard similar statements -- not actually a count but that many viet namese died. i have no idea where these right wingers get this information.

[FloridaPat]

11. I did a quick search on the internet. Found out there were a couple

of thousand deaths of people who ran S. Vietnam and sided with the Americans. There was also a lot of retraining of others. So I think millions is just another lie by another repub. Their facts are amazing. They just lie so often, there is usually no way to keep up with them.

[catmother]

12. thanks i was trying to get some info too. one million sounded

like way too many and i was around then protesting that war.

[FreedomAngel82]

8. Exactly

At least people appear to be waking up faster. I still think if we start to pull out the "insurgents" (who are Iraqi citizen's) will stop all the violence. We should do like Kerry said and take out the Iraqi army people and train them on other bases we have and than send them back. Someone on a radio show earlier this week, I think it was Malloy Friday night, told how it only takes a few weeks for a US solider to be trained so why not these guys? I think if they are away from all the destruction and bombing etc. they will have more time to train safely without being feared of being blown up while training and than we can take up the mid east leaders on helping secure the boarders. Earlier this year back in the beginning of January Kerry went on a mid east tour and spoke with the leaders in surrounding countries and he said they told him they were all ready to help with their troops but Bush has yet to take up their offer and they were surprised. I think they could really help if we take them on it.

[catmother]

13. i remember him saying that even before the 2004 election. it

makes sense. i just think bush is too thick headed and stubborn to listen to anyone. i don't know how he sleeps at night with what he's done. remember before he was elected the first time he said "i'm a uniter, not a divider". that bastard has divided this country so badly -- i don't know if we'll ever recover.

[ewagner]

2. Do you remember the classic

legal cliche about a man who is on trial for killing his parents and asks the court for mercy because he's an orphan?

This is the Republican argument about Iraq.

Sure, Saddam was a brutal SOB...but

Women had rights
There was a thriving middle-class (sanctions notwithstanding)
Everybody practiced their religion freely...including Jews going to an ancient synagogue in downtown Baghdad.
The economy actually worked
Crime was down

but....

we destroyed all of that

in hopes that we could create a NEOCON UTOPIA (Read Naomi Kline's book: Baghdad, Day Zero)

Iraq can be fixed but not by us. It can only be fixed by Iraqis and, unfortunately, maybe a brutal Iraqi at that.

[Greeby]

4. That list

Women had rights
There was a thriving middle-class (sanctions notwithstanding)
Everybody practiced their religion freely...including Jews going to an ancient synagogue in downtown Baghdad.
The economy actually worked
Crime was down

Yanno, that sort of thing is probably why the neocons hated him so much

[FreedomAngel82]

9. And didn't he also

not want to give Bush and them all his oil? I think that was another thing (like with Hugo Chavez).

[DIKB]

3. Very accurate analogy

Left to it/their own devices, death/tragedy would result. But is our presence truly helping, or only staving off the inevitable ?

[Sgent]

10. I'll go as far as to give them a chance

Let them get their government such as it is elected in Dec., continue training the trainers as it were, and get everyone else out.

I'd like to see no more than 10k troops by March.