Troops in Iraq Say Pullout Would Have Devastating Results :: Iraq

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November 06, 2006

Troops in Iraq Say Pullout Would Have Devastating Results

Topics: Iraq

We've been hearing a lot from the Democrats about supporting the troops by cutting and running from Iraq, or "redeployment" as Murtha and his ilk like to call it. However, according to the WaPo, while terms like "phased redeployment" and "event horizon" have been thrown around by the critics of the war, the boots on the ground that will have to execute such maneuvers haven't much enthusiasm for them: reports:

For the U.S. troops fighting in Iraq, the war is alternately violent and hopeful, sometimes very hot and sometimes very cold. It is dusty and muddy, calm and chaotic, deafeningly loud and eerily quiet.
The one thing the war is not, however, is finished, dozens of soldiers across the country said in interviews. And leaving Iraq now would have devastating consequences, they said.

With a potentially historic U.S. midterm election on Tuesday and the war in Iraq a major issue at the polls, many soldiers said the United States should not abandon its effort here. Such a move, enlisted soldiers and officers said, would set Iraq on a path to civil war, give new life to the insurgency and create the possibility of a failed state after nearly four years of fighting to implant democracy.

"Take us out of that vacuum -- and it's on the edge now -- and boom, it would become a free-for-all," said Lt. Col. Mark Suich, who commands the 1st Squadron, 89th Cavalry Regiment just south of Baghdad. "It would be a raw contention for power. That would be the bloodiest piece of this war."

The soldiers declined to discuss the political jousting back home, but they expressed support for the Bush administration's approach to the war, which they described as sticking with a tumultuous situation to give Iraq a chance to stand on its own.

... "This is a worthwhile endeavor," said Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of Multinational Division North and the 25th Infantry Division. "Nothing that is worthwhile is usually easy, and we need to give this more time for it to all come together. We all want to come home, but we have a significant investment here, and we need to give the Iraqi army and the Iraqi people a chance to succeed."

A premature withdrawal from Iraq would cause unimaginable instability not only in Iraq, but also throughout the Middle East. And there can be no doubt that jihadists would chalk up Iraq as proof positive that terrorism works -- adding it to other "successes" in Lebanon (1983) and Somalia (1993). Worse, an ignominious U.S. retreat would prove to countless other troublemakers that America is nothing more than a paper tiger.

To confirm that this is the case, we need only to look to senior terrorist leaders interviewed by WND who have said that they hope Americans sweep the Democrats into power because of the party's position on withdrawing from Iraq, a move, as they see it, that ensures victory for the worldwide Islamic resistance.

Hat tip - Captain Ed