The Consequences of Pulling Out of Iraq in 2011

Less than one week ago, the last remaining United States troops in Iraq crossed the border into Kuwait. I am neutral in whether it was the right time to pull out our troops mainly because I do not know what else we could have accomplished while remaining there (without seriously changing our role), however, Iraq is not ready to govern itself.

As we left, Iraq has no standing Air Force meaning anyone can cross over their skies such as Iran or even Israel. In fact, one of the top Iraqi military leaders, Lieutenant General Babaker Zebari, said Iraq would not be ready to defend its own borders and air space until 2020. Eight years is more than enough time for Iran to turn Iraq into another Lebanon or Syria, essentially another puppet state for the radical regime. I believe the main reason we entered Iraq was to contain Iran (Iraq to the west, Afghanistan to the east) just like Iran is doing to Israel with Syria, Lebanon, Gaza Strip, and now maybe even in Egypt.

To make matters worse, the day after the United States military presence was non existent, the Iraqi government started making moves to possibly reignite sectarian violence. Shiite Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, issued an arrest warrant for Vice President, Tariq al-Hasemi, who is Sunni. The Vice President is now in hiding from Iraqi officials in the northern semiautonomous Kurdistan region of Iraq and al-Maliki is now ordering Kurdistan officials to turn over the Vice President. Surely the coalition government is bound to collapse over this incident and who knows whats in store for the government. All we can do is hope this does not turn into another dictatorship. 


Lastly, as reported today, deadly bombings are now starting to happen as over 50 people have been killed in the most recent attack. No matter what day, month, or year we pulled out, this was bound to happen. While it is not a coincidence, all we can do is hope the Iraqis can find the strength to pull through these terrorist attacks and not revert to another civil war. If that happens, it will not stop until a dictator is once again in power or the nation is divided up into three regions which I don't see happening.


The United States did remove an extremely evil man from power, Saddam Hussein, and did an amazing job with the "troop surge" ordered in 2007. Pulling out of Iraq in 2011 was premature if we wanted the Iraq experiment to succeed so they could have liberty and be able to defend it. While the 2020 mark was way too long into the future, it was not ideal to pull out now, especially because their defense forces are not ready. If Iraq goes back to its historical ways, history could blame President Obama because of his failure to secure a proper deal for the United States military to remain in Iraq for a couple more years. President Bush was constantly in contact with the Iraqi government to secure deals, but, Obama did not show the same due diligence. All we can do now, is hope Iraq can get the proper resources to secure itself quickly and not have the coalition government based on religious factions, collapse.


-Christian N.


Sources:

• http://articles.latimes.com/2011/dec/18/world/la-fg-iraq-last-convoy-20111219
• http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iYV48140VGP9NW1ILBsXkgWVsE4g?docId=CNG.df3ecb21e974d96be42ce539d582b290.3c1
• http://www.theblaze.com/stories/iraq-issues-arrest-warrant-for-sunni-vp-on-terrorism-charges/
• http://www.foxnews.com/world/2011/12/22/explosions-rock-baghdad-7-killed-3-injured/?test=latestnews

Blue Dog Democrats Fold

July 29, 2009



Blue Dog Democrats reach a deal with Democratic leaders with regards to the Healthcare Reform Bill. The deal seems to be that they will cut 100 Billion (less than 10% of the bill) and exempt small business making less than $500,000 a year. Also part of the deal Steny Hoyer announced that the bill will not reach the house floor before the August Recess.

This bill will destroy American Healthcare as we know it. Democrats are taking the worlds best system and putting government in charge. The best metaphor can be found with this video:

Can there be simple ideas to improve our system which does have some flaws? Of course there are, and we should allow capitalism to thrive in healthcare, but we are taking the best system in the world and putting government in charge of our healthcare. This chart below is how are government will run our healthcare system:



Looks confusing doesn't it? Do you really want to go through that for healthcare?

They have a 1,000 page plus bill and NOT ONE DEMOCRAT HAS AGREED TO READING THE BILL BEFORE VOTING FOR IT. What we need to do this august recess, is go to their town halls, tell them how we really feel about this bill, flood their telephones, fax lines, mailboxes, and e-mail about why they should read this legislation (what we elected them to do) and tell them how they should vote.

This is our last chance to stop this legislation because the Blue Dogs are now on board with it. We must defeat it like how American Citizens defeated the amnesty bill under President Bush.

CREN