Our president has finally done it. He is on the verge of surrendering to the terrorists in Iraq.
On Monday, the BBC reported Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told reporters in Baghdad the U.S.-Iraq peace deal would require the withdrawal of all U.S. combat troops by Jan. 1, 2012, and the withdrawal of all troops from Iraqi urban areas by June 2009.
The important question for you is, what do the presidential candidates think?
On the one hand, Barack Obama's position on the issue of withdrawal is well known: immediately begin withdrawal, and complete the retreat by April 2009.
John McCain, on the other hand, adamantly opposes a deadline to get troops out; his Web site records him saying, "To promise a withdrawal of our forces from Iraq, regardless of the calamitous consequences to the Iraqi people, our most vital interests and the future of the Middle East is the height of irresponsibility. It is a failure of leadership."
Obama had the right of it.
The war in Iraq was quite clearly an epic, strategic blunder. The Bush administration misrepresented the intelligence on Iraq to create a threat where none existed. In fact, a comprehensive survey, released in January by the Center for Public Integrity, identified 935 outright lies or intentionally misleading statements by the administration regarding the capabilities of Saddam Hussein's government.
The administration then proceeded to place the post-war governance of Iraq under the U.S. Department of Defense, and it used critical positions in the Coalition Provisional Authority as political rewards, according to a 2006 article in the Washington Post. Unsurprisingly, serious mismanagement occurred.
Sectarian violence in Iraq grew throughout 2005, but the destruction of the Golden Dome in Samarra set off an orgy of killing.
The group Iraq Body Count estimates that at least 86,664 Iraqi civilians have died since 2003 as a direct result of the U.S. invasion. This is a hard lower limit; a range of numbers from different studies are available on the BBC Web site, putting the number dead between 150,000 and 1.2 million.
In any case, there were more than 2.4 million refugees in Iraq at the end of 2007, and another 2 million were living abroad, according to the UN and the International Organization for Migration. About 16 percent of the country's citizens have fled their homes, either out of the country or to live with their families in ethnically homogeneous societies.
Iraq is one of the chief foreign policy questions that will face the next president, and it is one that you should carefully consider as you weigh your vote in November.
Is it better to stay there and plug the dike or to cut our losses and leave? Think about these questions - they will shed light on your personal values and will inform your decision to vote for the next president.
Write to Neal at necoleman@bsu.edu
Read More
Three Air Jam teams take home the win
October 12, 2012Nineteen teams shimmied, shook and flipped for a sold out John R. Emens Auditorium on Thursday night during the 25th annual Air Jam.
Bill Clinton Speaks at North Central High School
October 12, 2012Former President's Speech Could Have Effect on State Senate Race
