...And the Dying Continues
John H. Adler
April 09, 2007
We are a country divided by the tragedy of the war in Iraq. We must continue to finance the conflict in order to fully support our troops as long as they are in harm’s way. The majority of the American people do not support this ill-fated war, but a stubborn, badly advised president is not listening but staying the course of destruction regardless of its continuing failure and mounting casualties. He has lost contact with the nation he was elected to lead.
To make things worse for our troops who do the fighting and dying, the ongoing presidential campaign has magnified and clearly polarized the people’s mood against the no-win position we face in Iraq. The conflict has become a political football giving comfort to the enemy. But, let us face it: we can not win this war.
Things begin to look more and more like Viet Nam with the notable exception that there we left only two political opponents to settle their differences while in Iraq the situation is much more complicated.
Will Iraq end up divided into three entities, Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, who will continue to fight each other until another strong man reunites the country? Will it be a mullah, resulting in the emergence of an Islamic nation resembling Iran? America and the Western world will have lost Iraq to other radical Islamists, and the Middle-East would be in greater turmoil than it is today.
Has our invasion of Iraq reduced the peril of Islamic terrorists to our country and the world? Of course not. It has increased the danger to us as well as to Europe and Israel. The problem of terrorist zealots will be with us just as the drug problem persists unabated, and we are saddled with both of them.
When will our government, Democratic or Republican, stop involving itself in regional conflicts? Let us get our troops out of the Middle-East and concentrate on shoring up our own borders. As a member of the United Nations, we should remain politically and diplomatically involved but only in concert with this body.
To make things worse for our troops who do the fighting and dying, the ongoing presidential campaign has magnified and clearly polarized the people’s mood against the no-win position we face in Iraq. The conflict has become a political football giving comfort to the enemy. But, let us face it: we can not win this war.
Things begin to look more and more like Viet Nam with the notable exception that there we left only two political opponents to settle their differences while in Iraq the situation is much more complicated.
Will Iraq end up divided into three entities, Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds, who will continue to fight each other until another strong man reunites the country? Will it be a mullah, resulting in the emergence of an Islamic nation resembling Iran? America and the Western world will have lost Iraq to other radical Islamists, and the Middle-East would be in greater turmoil than it is today.
Has our invasion of Iraq reduced the peril of Islamic terrorists to our country and the world? Of course not. It has increased the danger to us as well as to Europe and Israel. The problem of terrorist zealots will be with us just as the drug problem persists unabated, and we are saddled with both of them.
When will our government, Democratic or Republican, stop involving itself in regional conflicts? Let us get our troops out of the Middle-East and concentrate on shoring up our own borders. As a member of the United Nations, we should remain politically and diplomatically involved but only in concert with this body.