Organizing for America | Tyler Folsom's Blog: Iraq objectives

Iraq objectives

By Tyler Folsom - Sep 13th, 2008 at 12:04 pm EDT

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Has anyone else noticed that U.S. forces have been in Iraq for 5.5 years and the president still hasn't told us why they are there? What are our objectives? When our troops come home from Iraq, will they have won the war or lost it? Presumably victory has something to do with accomplishing our objectives. How can anyone measure that when no one knows our objectives?

The original reason that the President gave for invading Iraq was to eliminate Iraq's Weapons of Mass Destruction. We invaded, and found out that Iraq had no WMD. At that point why didn't our troops say "Sorry, our mistake" and come home? Because we are not as polite as the Canadians?

Some people seem to be under the illusion that Iraq or Hussein had something to do with 9/11. "No, we've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th." - George W Bush [FNS, 9/17/03]. The 9/11 Commission could find no "collaborative relationship" between Iraq and Al Qaeda.

Was our objective in Iraq overthrowing Saddam? He is dead. We can come home now.

Did we invade Iraq so that we could restore infrastructure and security to the levels before we invaded? This seems too absurd, yet the main reason given for not withdrawing now is that too much disorder would ensue.

There were no terrorists in Iraq before we invaded. There are terrorists there now. They seem to break into two types. 1) Ethnic violence. 2) Resistance to an occupying army. Bringing our troops home would eliminate the second type. Is our objective to put the lid on ethnic violence?

Did we invade Iraq to bring democracy? If so, are Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, China, Cuba, Venezuela, Sudan, Zimbawee and Congo next on the list?

Did we invade Iraq so that we could control their oil? Does victory in Iraq mean forcing the Iraqis to turn over control of the oil fields to U.S. corporations?

Did we invade Iraq so that we could project military power into the Middle East and be able to control events there? Is this McCain's justification for staying there 50 or 100 years?

Is there some other reason? What would victory in Iraq look like? How do we recognize it when it comes?

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