The cold, really cold hard truth

The "infantry soldier" - a very humble description for someone so close in rank to our exalted generals - make some comments on Altercation today. Perhaps I read them too finely and interpreted them too harshly; you can judge for yourselves. My eyes tell me that he just laid the pending genocide of Iraqis at the feet of those who want to get out of this poor country. Below is the content of my reply to this charge.

Nice. I pray that you were not - with this comment - joining the bandwagon of folks who say that those who support leaving Iraq do not have a plan. Regardless, I took some umbrage at your comment that those of us who want to leave have done some cold, hard calculus that states that American lives are worth more than Iraqi lives. This just in: that is how it has always been. As someone who is proudly descended from those whom the authors of our Constitution were not quite convinced of our humanity, I have to do nothing but read those cold, hard words of "non-persons" to know how I was defined by this nation. And I have but to read reports of soldiers referring to Iraqi's as "sand niggers" to know that those thoughts are still with us - and they are present in more than just the wishes of those who want to leave.

We all have the deaths of Iraqi's on our heads as our crown of thorns and that we must deal with, but that is true whether we stay or go. The only question is: are our aims achievable. I say there is absolutely nothing in our history or in our current efforts in Iraq that proves we have the capability to achieve these goals (creating a stable democracy in the nation once known as Iraq). So if we cannot do what we claim we want to do, the only sensible course is too leave - as prudently as possible, certainly, but sure in the knowledge that many, many, many deaths will occur regardless of which path we take.

As far as the slaughter that awaits the Iraqi people and the potential wider war that might engulf the region, the die was cast on that back in 2003.

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