It's Time to Leave Iraq

It's time to bid farewell to the Iraqis: The Iraqis to whom we freed from Saddam Hussein's barbaric grip. The Iraqis who are Muslims and are now free to kill each other in a religion-based civil war. I read the headlines today that recounted the murderous vendetta unleashed by Shiites against Sunnis in Tal Afar. More than 60 people were killed, and I'm sure the body count will go higher.

What's particularly disturbing to me is that Iraqi police went on a rampage and, along with Shiite Militants, roamed Sunni neighborhoods in the dark of night. They shot up the city, shooting at the residents and their homes. This revenge killing was sparked by massive truck bombings in the city, ostensibly carried out by Sunni militants. Some of the relatives of the murdered Shiites in the truck bombing went into Sunni homes and dragged the residents into the streets and killed them. So it goes, tit for tat in Iraq.

Hey, if you can't trust law enforcement officials to defend and protect you, who can you trust? And that brings me to my conclusion that we have nothing more to prove or gain by maintaining U.S. troops in that sorry Country. Picture yourself living in a U.S. city. Suddenly, one night, there's gunfire outside your home. The police are shooting at your house and militants break down your door, dragging your father or husband or child into the street to be executed. It's not too hard to visualize the horror in that scenario.

I believe we should pull out of there, but not for the same reasons that the Bush-bashing Democrats offer. Even if Iraq was peaceful, their pathologic hatred of Bush would still contradict whatever he proposed. However, there comes a time when you have to take a hard, cold look at risk management and cost/benefit. Well, the time is now and the risks of further U.S. soldiers remaining in Iraq is far too great and the benefit is zero.