We Won the War. Time to Get Our People Home

This article was originally published on July 26th, 2006 at americanchronicle.com

What’s all this talk about cut and run? We’ve won the war with Iraq. We’ve accomplished all the objectives the president laid out when he made his case for invading Iraq in the first place.
First, we beat the snot out of their armed forces, at least the few of them that were willing to stick around to do battle with us. Of course, did anyone ever really think they’d be able to put up much of a fight, let alone defeat us? Second, we destroyed all the weapons of mass destruction they were supposed to have had. Oh, wait. We never found those. Well, anyway, any programs they may have had aimed at creating such weapons have been completely dismantled. I think Iraqi WMDs are no longer a threat. Third, we completed the regime change by killing Saddam’s sons and capturing him. He is no longer a threat, yet the Republicans think if we leave now we’ve lost? Nope. We won this war big time. The Iraqi people totally capitulated. They laid down and screamed UNCLE so loud the world could hear. They’re still screaming. They even lined up by the millions and voted, just to show us that they were indeed a democracy. All objectives met.
We won the war, let’s bring our troops home. There’s no reason for them to be there. Unless, of course, there’s something in Iraq that we want. But wait, one might say, what about Iraq’s security? We want to prevent a civil war. Too late. Civil war has already started, whether we like it or not, whether we call it that or an insurgency. And our presence just exacerbates the problem. First we attack a few Sunni strongholds, then a few Shi’ites. It’s really none of our business if they want to kill each other. An Iraqi civil war does not equate to an American defeat any more than an American civil war would equate to a German or a French defeat. What about fighting terrorists and protecting Americans from that scourge? I’ve heard many experts say the war in Iraq is creating more terrorists than it is killing. I agree with them. As my buddy Valentine always reminds me, “What would you do if there was a foreign army occupying our lands?” If we really want to prevent foreign terror attacks in the USA, we should bring our troops back home, close up our borders, find all the illegal immigrants in this country and either document them or ship them out depending on their individual circumstances. Those moves alone should change the terror alert level in this country to green. Once we start minding our own business we shouldn’t have anything to worry about terrorists. They have a tendency to bother only those who are oppressing or otherwise abusing them.
The only reason our troops are still deployed in Iraq is to protect the oil. They are there to make sure those who are already too rich become richer. That is yet another reason to convert our energy infrastructure to renewable energy systems. If all the money and resources pumped into the Iraq war had been used to convert our energy systems to renewable sources, we would be completely oil independent by now and no one would have had to die. Of course, then the oil companies would not have earned record profits last year.
Don’t be fooled into thinking that leaving now would be “cutting and running” or would equate into losing the war. We won that war hands down. Don't let anyone tell you different. If we continue with this occupation it will simply lead to more brutalization of the Iraqi people. We should leave now while we still have a modicum of decency and dignity left. Our people won that war and brought democracy to Iraq. Let them come home while they can still be proud of their accomplishments.