Obama Should Hasten Iraq Withdrawal

One of the reasons I was drawn to President Obama during the election campaign was his opposition to the war in Iraq from the very beginning. He was one of the very few who always believed it was a mistake to invade and occupy Iraq. I was hoping that once he was elected, the U.S. could quickly begin withdrawing its troops. It looks like he is starting to do that.

During the campaign, Obama said he would withdraw U.S. troops within 16 months after becoming president. I thought that was a little slow, but no one offered anything better. Now it looks like the withdrawal will be much slower than that.

The first 12,000 troops will be home by Fall of 2009. That is just a drop in the bucket. We currently have about 142,000 troops in Iraq. The bulk of those forces will not be withdrawn until August of 2010, and even then, up to 50,000 troops will remain. All of our troops will not be withdrawn until the end of 2011.

That means American soldiers will be dying in Iraq for another 33 months (two years and 9 months). That's twice as long as Obama promised during the campaign. The President has abandoned his own plan and accepted the Bush timetable. That is unacceptable!

I realize that our huge amount of troops and equipment probably cannot be withdrawn in a single month, but it certainly should be a lot closer to one month than 33 months. The fact is that the longer we stay, the more American soldiers and innocent civilians will be killed while little or nothing will be accomplished.

Only the Iraqis can settle the Iraqi problems, and they cannot do that as long as we remain in the way, propping up the puppet government we have installed. That government will not survive once the U.S. leaves, but the Iraqis cannot replace it as long as we are there defending it.

The best thing for both countries would be an immediate and complete withdrawal of United States troops. Barring that, the president should at least keep his campaign promise, and complete the withdrawal in 16 months.