Do you think we will ever fully pull out of Iraq?

[bhunt70]

Poll question: Do you think we will ever fully pull out of Iraq?

[amber dog democrat]

1. After 450 the Romans left England

It won't take us that long.

[connecticut yankee]

2. When they run out of oil

Or, maybe, after we elect Kerry.

GO, HUSKIES!!!!

[3rdParty]

3. Well...we're still in Germany since WWII so......

I wouldn't count on us leaving anytime soon with our track record.

(I think we still have around 50,000 troops still in Germany...unbelievable)

[AG78]

4. Not if we...

want to play a larger role in Gulf region security.

[mmonk]

5. Not without alot of bloodshed

because our goal of permanent bases is still in place.

[Poiuyt]

6. I think one of the objectives of this war

was to set up a military base there.

[SpaceCatMeetsMars]

8. They are building fourteen military bases and the world's

largest embassy. I think that means they plan to have much more than an ambassador there.

Here's where I got that info from:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1184993,00.html

snip

The US occupation authority has also found a sneaky way to maintain control over Iraq's armed forces. Bremer has issued an executive order stating that even after the interim Iraqi government has been established, the Iraqi army will answer to US commander Lt General Ricardo Sanchez. In order to pull this off, Washington is relying on a legalistic reading of a clause in UN security council resolution 1511, which puts US forces in charge of Iraq's security until "the completion of the political process" in Iraq. Since the "political process" in Iraq is never-ending, so it seems is US military control.

In the same flurry of activity, the CPA announced that it would put further constraints on the Iraqi military by appointing a national security adviser for Iraq. This US appointee would have powers equivalent to those held by Condoleezza Rice and will stay in office for a five-year term, long after Iraq is scheduled to have made the transition to a democratically elected government.

There is one piece of this country, though, that the US government is happy to cede to the people of Iraq: the hospitals. On March 27 Bremer announced that he had withdrawn the senior US advisers from Iraq's health ministry, making it the first sector to achieve "full authority" in the US occupation.

Taken together, these latest measures paint a telling picture of what a "free Iraq" will look like: the United States will maintain its military and corporate presence through 14 enduring military bases and the largest US embassy in the world. It will hold on to authority over Iraq's armed forces, its security and economic policy and the design of its core infrastructure - but the Iraqis can deal with their decrepit hospitals all by themselves, complete with their chronic drug shortages and lack of the most basic sanitation capacity. (The US health and human services secretary, Tommy Thompson, revealed just how low a priority this was when he commented that Iraq's hospitals would be fixed if the Iraqis "just washed their hands and cleaned the crap off the walls".)

snip

[0007]

9. That and control of oil was the whole idea of going into Iraq

The Saudis wanted us out and we needed bases, so we're going after 'em, Hitler style.

[AG78]

10. Just one?

I think that was THE objective. Oil plays a part, but I think we're beyond oil at this point. The oil will be used to keep the military as healthy as possible.

Iraq is in the middle of the Middle East. Syria directly west. Iran directly east. Saudi Arabia directly south. Central Asia basically to the north, and east somewhat(to paraphrase Rumsfeld). We're already in Afghanistan. We're in Uzbekistan. Pretty sure we're in Azerbaijan. We're in the Balkans. We've got our new friends in Pakistan(to a certain extent), until we say that they've developed WMD(and they actually have, and sold them around the world) and go to war with them in roughly 15 years from now.

It was never about Saddam.

[aneerkoinos]

7. Quicker than from Vietnam n/t

[IrateCitizen]

11. We will be forced to when the Empire collapses...

And at the rate at which it is hollowing itself out in the pursuit of expansion, I don't think that will be all too long....

If you don't know what I'm talking about here, I suggest you read The Sorrows of Empire by Chalmers Johnson. It will open your eyes unlike any other book. If you're really ambitious, start with his book Blowback and then proceed to Sorrows.

Buckle up, folks -- there's some bumpy roads ahead. :scared:

[MadHound]

12. Yes, probably later rather than sooner

Sadly, it looks like the Dems and the 'Pugs will get into another decades long pissing contest, with each side racheting up our involvement in the Iraqi quagmire, just so they won't look soft on the war on terror. Shades of Vietnam. And again, like Vietnam, we will withdraw from Iraq, with our tail between our legs, having achieved nothing in the time we were there, other than destroying the country's infrastructure, poisoning the society's support mechanisms, raiding the land's natural resources and killings millions of innocents.

When will we learn from the lessons of history? You cannot build a nation with the power of the gun. You cannot change a society with the heavy hand of oppression. All you can do is prolong a bloody occupation.