Reasons To Stay In Iraq

Reasons to stay in Iraq as the American death toll rises, as more Americans are permanently disabled, and as families fall apart due to the separation from their loved ones are becoming harder and harder to find and justify. America is tired of the war. She is losing the will to win.

Politicians continue to look for reasons to spend billions on a war that many consider a lost cause.

There are many reasons to stay in Iraq. They are all important. To try to single out one reason that overrides them all is impossible. There is no one reason to rule over the others. They must all be looked at as parts of a circle, each one needed to complete the circle.

One of the reasons to stay in Iraq, according to actress Angelina Jolie, is humanitarian as mentioned in the following statement from an article she wrote for the Washington Post:

“Today's humanitarian crisis in Iraq -- and the potential consequences for our national security -- are great. Can the United States afford to gamble that 4 million or more poor and displaced people, in the heart of Middle East, won't explode in violent desperation, sending the whole region into further disorder?

What we cannot afford, in my view, is to squander the progress that has been made. In fact, we should step up our financial and material assistance. UNHCR has appealed for $261 million this year to provide for refugees and internally displaced persons. That is not a small amount of money -- but it is less than the U.S. spends each day to fight the war in Iraq. I would like to call on each of the presidential candidates and congressional leaders to announce a comprehensive refugee plan with a specific timeline and budget as part of their Iraq strategy.

As for the question of whether the surge is working, I can only state what I witnessed: U.N. staff and those of non-governmental organizations seem to feel they have the right set of circumstances to attempt to scale up their programs.

And when I asked the troops if they wanted to go home as soon as possible, they said that they miss home but feel invested in Iraq. They have lost many friends and want to be a part of the humanitarian progress they now feel is possible. This, in itself, is one of the reasons to stay in Iraq.

It seems to me that now is the moment to address the humanitarian side of this situation. Without the right support, we could miss an opportunity to do some of the good we always stated we intended to do. “

Angelina Jolie, an actress, is a UNHCR goodwill ambassador. For more information go to Angelina Jolie and Iraq.

More reasons for staying in Iraq include helping the Iraqi government build stability to provide its citizens with freedom. I have read articles where people claim we are in Iraq to help it build a democracy. Democracy is what we have in the United States. We are only one of a few countries that have a true Democracy.

My understanding of a Democracy is a government of the people, for the people and by the people. This type of government lets each American live his/her life as he/she wishes as long as it does not intrude upon the life of another. We call this freedom. Iraq is building a democracy best on the Koran. It will be an Islamic democracy which is far different from that of the United States. It is freedom from tyranny, fear, torture, murder and Islamic extremism that the United States is trying to help Iraq establish.

Reasons for staying in Iraq can be found in this statement by Il Filosofo posted on December 8, 2005 at 8:34 pm:

“After all, the insurgency is not destined to succeed. They are not fighting for a clear ideology; they lack any great power backing; they lack a positive agenda; they lack a charismatic leader; they have no territory of their own; they lack the support of the Shiites and the Kurds, as well as a significant portion of the Sunni population.”

The United States needs to finish what it started, even if the reason for starting was wrong. If we do not finish, then we will lose our military clout. It is this clout, this fear of reprisals that will keep many countries from attacking the United States on its soil or wherever it has citizens.

Due to the failure of Bill Clinton to aggressively deal with terrorists who attacked United States interests, Osama decided he could attack the WTC and there would be no response. And perhaps the misjudgment of George Bush Sr. to dethrone Saddam also led to some of this belief.

Osama made a grave mistake. You can be assured he is living in hell here on earth, always hiding, always wondering who is going to sell him out, always wondering if a phone call he makes will be his last as a United States missile hones in on his phone signal and evaporates him.

One of the other reasons to stay in Iraq is to protect the people from Islamic extremism. If the United States pulls out before total stability is brought, then Islamic extremists will kill all who do not believe in their philosophy, that being that all must bow to Mohammed or die. There is no in between. These Islamic extremists will make the “killing fields” and “re-education camps” of the post-Vietnam era look like child’s play. Millions will die.

Reasons to stay in Iraq include bringing peace to all the people of Iraq. The United States has been accused of being an “occupation military,” by many. The Iraqis I worked with considered the United States as a big brother watching over its sister. They are grateful of the sacrifices the American people have made for them. Sure, some of them have died in the battle as well, but they know these numbers are much smaller than the numbers killed by Saddam’s regime and his wars. They know that freedom comes with a price. They would rather pay that price than to live under a dictator like Saddam, a wanna-be dictator like Al Sadr or the extremists that want them to follow their path of jihad. Another of the reasons to stay in Iraq is to try to provide the children a stable environment to grow up in. I realize that we have children in the United States who are not growing up in a stable environment, but the opportunity is there. The opportunity for education is there. The opportunity to advance is there. It is up to the parents to take advantage of these opportunities that have been provided.

To take advantage of them, parents must take responsibility for their actions and those of their children, but we are getting off the subject here. By providing stability, the Iraqi children will have advantages that their parents did not have. The Iraqi children are the future hope of Iraq, that hope being they will learn to live in peace and accept all people for who they are.

One of the final reasons to stay in Iraq is to win the war that was started. Actually I do not understand whey we say win the war that the United States started. The war the United States started is over. The United States, in a matter of weeks, defeated Saddam’s military.

Here is another of the final reasons to stay in Iraq. The current war is a guerrilla war started by all the thugs who moved in when Saddam was disposed. This is a second war, a war that no one could foresee. It is easy to see now, but hindsight is always better than foresight.

If we pull out without accomplishing the mission of eliminating all these thugs, then the extremists will think they have won and will come after the United States with a vengeance. If a President is elected who withdraws too soon, then six months to a year after that withdraw, there will be another attack on American soil that will kill 20-25,000 in the first blast alone. Thousands more will die horrible from radiation poisoning in the days, weeks, months and years to follow. We must stay in Iraq and finish what we started. We must eliminate Al Sadr.

These are the reasons to stay in Iraq. For more information watch this YouTube video.

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