Listening to President Bush tell it, pulling American troops out of Iraq would be the end of the world. The sky would fall. Unfortunately for the president and all Republicans, Americans are tired of his bleak, gloom and doom prognostics of leaving Iraq and its growing violent tide...
This is the same president that said Iraq was an immediate threat to the United States because they had weapons of mass destruction and could use them on mainland America within minutes...
This is the same president that said Iraq had tried to buy "yellow cake" refined uranium from Niger...
This is the same president that said the Iraqi oil supply would pay for the war...
This is the same president that said American troops would be welcomed with candy and flowers...
This is the same president that said the war could be fought with a minimal number of troops...
And on a different event, this is the same president that told then FEMA Director Brown, "Brownie you are doing a heck of a job," while stranded Americans died waiting for his government to send help...
On all accounts the president has been wrong. Why should anyone believe he is right now? The guy's track record is pathetic. Now comes this gem from President Bush in his radio address, "If America were to pull out before Iraq can defend itself, the consequences would be disastrous. We would be handing Iraq over to the terrorists, giving them a base of operations and huge oil riches to fund their ambitions. And we know exactly where those ambitions lead. If we give up the fight in the streets of Baghdad, we will face the terrorists in the streets of our own cities. The security of the civilized world depends on victory in the war on terror, and that depends on victory in Iraq, so America will not leave until victory is achieved." Maybe or maybe he is wrong again. You could make a case to stay in Iraq to help the civilian Iraqi population that is now in chaos, a chaos that America created when it took Saddam out of power. It might be good for the average Iraqi but it wouldn't necessarily be in America's best interest...
It is entirely possible that pulling American troops out of Iraq would have the complete opposite effect than the president says. If the troops were out then maybe the Sunnis and Shiites would fight each other for control, without American troops being caught in the crossfire as they are now. Maybe with so much on the line for the whole Middle East that all the terrorists would stay and fight each other. If Iran is funding and helping Shiite fighters in Iraq and Sunnis like bin Laden are funding and helping Sunni fighters to counter the Iranians. Then we have the perfect scenario, Iran and al-Qaida fighting each other in a long Iraqi civil war with us sitting back and watching them kill each other. That in itself is reason to pull the troops out of Iraq, our two sworn enemies fighting each other. It makes little sense to continue helping the current Iraqi government, a government that openly supports Hezbollah and sides with Iran....
The Republicans like to say we fight terrorists over there so we don't have to fight them over here but maybe they would fight each other over there so we won't have to fight them over here or over there...
Maybe, just maybe President Bush is trying to scare Americans for political gain with his, "We will face the terrorists in the streets of our own cities." Maybe President Bush and the Republican Party have been using 9/11, Iraq and terrorists all along for political gain. Maybe, just maybe the American people can see Bush and the Republicans for what they are, political opportunists willing to let the troops rot in Iraq so they can get elected to a political office...
Bush and the Republicans haven't been right yet, and I don't think they will be right anytime soon. Bring the troops home and let the Sunnis and Shiites fight their own civil war. The terrorists will be too busy fighting each other to fight us; and that my friends is a plan...