Opinions about pulling out of Iraq

Withdrawing troops from Iraq, is it a dream to think that it might happen? Not for Great Britain. On Wednesday, February 22nd, British Prime Minister Tony Blair aannounced he was beginning the withdrawal of his troops from Iraq. In the coming months he will have 1,600 troops withdrawn and hopes to make more cuts to the other 7,100 troops by this summer. Blair’s reason for this decision, British troops have achieved many tangible successes in Iraq and the time has come to let Iraqi troops take over. Denmark also announced it will be withdrawing its 460 troops. These announcements come at a time when the U.S. is implementing an increase of 21,000 more troops.

I had the privilege of speaking to a Viet Nam veteran, Tom, about the war in Iraq and what his thoughts were concerning the withdrawal of troops.

Q. Earlier this year some congressmen said that the Iraqi war was was a bigger mistake than Viet Nam. What do you think about that statement?

A. In the beginning we seemed to have a better reason for going to Iraq which was the thought that they had weapons of mass destruction that eventually could impact the U.S. The U.S.’s involvement in Viet Nam had to do with the spread of communism and started out in an advisory capacity. As the war started to build the U.S. got involved more and more until we were fighting. There was really no danger that communism would have spread to the U.S. Now we know that there were no weapons of mass destruction so both wars were fought for reasons that may not have had an impact on the U.S. When you’re in the military doing your job, it is difficult to think of it as a mistake.

Q. Do you believe the U.S. will accomplish its objective?

A. I think it is nearly impossible for them to accomplish their objective. I don’t know that the Iraqis will be able to handle their own affairs or that their military will be able to stand on its own. The different religious factions continue to fight and kill one another and I don’t think that will ever end. Therefore, there will never be a satisfactory person or party in control of their government because the people of Iraq don’t get along based on their religious beliefs. I have a hard time hearing that more and more of our men and women are being killed when there doesn’t seem to be a solution to this fighting that has gone on amongst their people and the original reason for our being there no longer exists.

Q. Do you think we should follow Great Britain and Denmark and start withdrawing our troops?

A. Iraqis have to start to stand on their own and as long as we are there we are a crutch for them to lean on. Rather than sending more troops to Iraq, we need to start a gradual withdrawal. The problem is that whether we are there or not I believe the fighting will continue among the people. When you enter the military you know the possible dangers of your job but we are losing our soldiers in what seems to be a losing battle. We need to bring them home.

Thanks for talking to me today Tom.

Thank you Ryan.

This is Ryan signing off.

Ryan 3rd hour