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Originally Posted by loquitur
I think Moore would be well served thinking through the consequences of what he is proposing. These decisions don't exist in a vacuum, and every decision has consequences. Making a decision based on satisfying one's moral sense, without accounting for the likely effect of the decision on oneself or others is infantile and self-indulgent in the extreme.
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Isnt that exactly what Bush and the neo-cons did to satisfy their moral sense to bring democracy to the Middle East by force of invasion?
Quote:
Originally Posted by hiredgun
Iran will almost certainly come out on top following the bloodshed that will take place in Iraq if we leave now.
Then again, Iran will probably come out on top anyway, so maybe it's moot.
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The top parties in the Shia majority in the government, Dawa and SCIRI, already have long-standing ties to Iran. Iraq also just restored dipliomatic relations with Syria. Both of which are all the more reason for the US to use whatever political capital we have left with Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Kuwait to get them more engaged in order to balance the Iran/Syrian influence.
We are beyond any reasonable liklihood of a military victory in Iraq. Militaries are designed to fight and win wars, not perform police functions or to mitigate long-standing hatreds and cope new wounds created by those hatreds. It is not "shameful and cowardly or an embarrassment to everyone who died in Iraq"to acknowledge that Bush, Cheney et al "misunderstood, misread, misplanned and mismanaged our honorable intentions in Iraq with an arrogant self-delusion reminiscent of Vietnam. Honorable intentions are not policies and plans. Iraq belongs to the 25 million Iraqis who live there. They will decide their fate and form of government." (quote from Repub Senator Chuck Hagel)
Stepped-up diplomatic and political pressure on the Iraq government and our "friends" in the region, all of whom have a vested interest in stability in Iraq, is our best course of action.....and I would still accompany that with a clearly defined planned for a phased withdrawal to begin within the next few months to demonstrate to all in the region that the US has no intentions of being a long time occupying power.