Let's Get Out Of Iraq !

As most of us know by now, there was no legitimate reason for the United States to invade Iraq. Iraq was not supporting or supplying the terrorists, had no weapons of mass destruction, and posed no danger of any kind to this country. But that didn't matter to George Bush and Dick Cheney. Either because of ego or oil, those two couldn't wait to invade Iraq. They thought it would be an easy victory and make them look good to the press (and therefore to the voters). They were horribly wrong.

Instead of an easy victory, the U.S. found itself in a quagmire that could not be won militarily, and the situation dragged on for years -- killing thousands of U.S. and coalition soldiers and innocent Iraqi civilians. Last year President Obama withdrew thousands of United Staes troops and declared the conflict was over. The only problem with that is that he left nearly 50,000 troops in Iraq and the dying (both of troops and civilians) continued.

Now the United States is coming close to the deadline to legally keep troops in Iraq. The agreement that justifies the American troops to remain in that country runs out on the last day of this year. After December 31st, it will be a violation of international law and Iraqi sovereignty to keep any troops in Iraq. For months now the U.S. government has been putting enormous pressure on Iraq to agree to let thousands of U.S. troops to remain for at least another year (or longer). But the Iraqis have balked at signing a new agreement. They want the American occupation forces out of their country.

But the White House has not given up yet. Last week it became known that they want to leave at least 3,000 to 4,000 troops in Iraq after the end of the year (and possibly as many as 10,000). It looks like they are finally figuring out the Iraqis are not going to allow tes of thousands of American troops to stay in their country, so they have radically scaled back their demands. They are now hoping either the Iraqis will agree to allowing a few thousand troops to remain -- or they can skirt international law and condemnation by keeping only a few thousand troops there and calling them "trainers".

This is an incredibly dumb decision. If the Iraqis don't want us there, and they obviously don't, then it is time to bring ALL of the troops home and let the Iraqis fix their remaining problems themselves (especially since they are the only ones who can do it anyway). Leaving 3,000 or 4,000 troops in Iraq will accomplish nothing. If the Iraqi forces aren't sufficiently trained to take care of things themselves, then that piddling number of American troops are not going to save them. The only thing it can possibly accomplish is to leave that many American targets in Iraq -- and create even more ill will toward this country by Iraqis (if that is possible).

Whether anything has been accomplished or not, it is time to bring all of the American troops back home and draw the curtain on our ill-fated Iraqi intervention. Leaving any amount of American soldiers in Iraq after December 31st simply makes no sense.

And while we're at it, let's bring the troops in Afghanistan home too. That invasion and occupation stopped making sense many years ago.