We're killing more Iraqi's than the insurgents
Just when you thought the news from Iraq couldn't get any worse.
BAGHDAD, Iraq — Operations by U.S. and multinational forces and Iraqi police are killing twice as many Iraqis — most of them civilians — as attacks by insurgents, according to statistics compiled by the Iraqi Health Ministry.
Iraqi officials said the statistics proved that U.S. airstrikes intended for insurgents also were killing large numbers of civilians. Some say these casualties are undermining popular acceptance of the American-backed interim government.
Iraq ministry says coalition kills more civilians than insurgents do (Nancy A. Youssef, The Seattle Times, 25 September 2004)
Since the 10th of September, multinational forces have been responsible for the deaths of 1295 Iraqis; insurgents have been responsible for the deaths of 516.
Don't get me wrong. Now that we're there, we don't have any choice but to stay until Iraq is secure and peaceful. But I hope someone in the Pentagon can find a way for us to do that job effectively and quickly. It's clear that the White House can't do it, and it's not likely to be the Secretary of Defense either.
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No. Not as we did in Vietnam. I don't have a clue about how to do it, but I sure hope there's someone who knows what it will take to build a viable, stable regime in Iraq. If we leave before that happens and allow Iraq to become an anarchy, it will be a wealthier and larger breeding ground for terrorists than Afghanistan ever was (or might be again, the way things are going).
I'm young enough not to have been eligible for the draft during Vietnam (barely), but I think what I'm suggesting for Iraq is different. In Vietnam we were trying to prop up a government in the South that was not supported by many Vietnamese. In Iraq we need to help a government emerge that will be supported by a majority of the Iraqis. To do that we need to be willing to accept the possibility, the probability the way things are going, that the government will not be friendly to us. So long as it's stable, reasonably humane to its citizens, and unfriendly to terrorists, we can count our blessings and walk away.
As much as I despised Saddam Hussein and thought that the world would be better off without him in power, I was profoundly skeptical about our invasion of Iraq because I feared that we wouldn't be willing to invest what it would take to rebuild Iraq. It's turning out that it will cost even more than I feared. Unfortunately, as bad as staying in is, pulling out would be even worse.
"Now that we're there, we don't have any choice but to stay until Iraq is secure and peaceful."
Oh, do you mean like we did in Viet Nam?
Embittered Gay Draftee, (Viet Nam Vet)
Darrell