What Happens If We Just Pull Out of Iraq?
What happens to all the Iraqis who have helped Americans during the war if we pull out early as Congress wants?
The Captain gives us a chilling scenario that is a flashback to many of us:
Iraqis who have worked with the US to help bring peace and stability to their country now want some guarantees about their future if the troops start withdrawing in the face of terrorists. They want assurances that they will not become the second Montagnards:
With pressure building in Washington for an American troop pullout, Iraqis who have worked closely with U.S. companies and military forces are begging their employers for assurances that they will be able to leave with them.
“They must take care of the people who worked with the Americans,” said Hayder, an Iraqi who has worked for several U.S. companies since coalition forces entered Iraq. …A woman who has worked closely with the U.S. military said she was deeply worried about what will happen when the Americans leave.
“Who is going to protect us?” she asked during an interview near her home in downtown Baghdad.
When the Americans leave, all those who worked with them “must leave also,” said another woman who has been forced to move to Jordan. She asked that her name not be used in order to protect her extended family still living in Baghdad.
Are we to be left with the same horrifying scene of desperate people trying to get away to save their lives? Remember the crowds that were too big to get onto the helicopters and our soldiers having to push them away from the craft?
These people were taken to re-education camps for brainwashing or death. Others were put on boats to fend for themselves, some ending up here as “boat people” refugees.
Are we, the richest country in the world, the most compassionate people of the world, capable and willing to do the same things again to a different people?
Have we learned anything from our past and, if so, are we as a people going to demand Congress make provisions for these people and not leave them there to be killed in ways we can’t even imagine if they are determined for us to leave right away?
These are human beings who happened to have put their faith in us to take care of them. Are we going to let them down just as we let down the Vietnamese people? I pray to God we don’t.
Maybe we should start getting in touch with our Congress, who seems so bent on leaving, and tell them to come up with a plan to rescue those who actually helped us if they decide to cut and run. Yes, there were some who helped us and there are some who continue to do so.
Written by ~J~
CMR Says:
June 4th, 2007 at 3:10 pmVisit CMR
Just hope it doesn’t come to this. If it does, many will take us to be unreliable in any situation. Moreover, the impact of that kind of withdrawal will come home with us.
Andrew Schlewitz Says:
June 4th, 2007 at 4:43 pmVisit Andrew Schlewitz
It may well be we signalled unreliability initially with the invasion of Iraq. That is, our rep is already damaged. Can pulling out sooner rather than later ruin what’s already in tatters?
Anyway, I guess we should at least keep trying while simultaneously broaching regional security issues with Iran–thus keeping two options open.
But, I think this war is like a long division problem in which the person made the mistake in the first calculation (invasion). Maybe most of the rest of the calculations are correct, but the person will never get the solution, the correct answer.
~J~ Says:
June 4th, 2007 at 7:25 pmVisit ~J~
Andrew, we can argue as to whether or not we should have gone into Iraq in the first place until we’re blue in the face. The fact is we did.
Now, if Congress forces withdrawal of troops prior to the killing settling down, what happens to the people who helped us and our companies if we just leave them there? We both know the answer to that, and I don’t look forward to Marines pushing people away from the last helicopter as it lifts off the roof of the embassy, knowing these people will not even get the same chance the Vietnamese got. They will just be beheaded or hanged or some other unthinkable act all for helping us out. It just doesn’t seem right.
Andrew Schlewitz Says:
June 4th, 2007 at 8:05 pmVisit Andrew Schlewitz
I didn’t communicate well. My point wasn’t to dredge up the initial action itself, but to say that that it has ended up in a situation where there is no good or best way out of this bloody morass. There are awful costs, and few benefits to exiting quickly, or staying to some indeterminate time when the killing has settled down. Or, back to my long division analogy–there’s no way to fix that long division problem by just continuing to do calculations when the errors are at the outset.
I’m not sure why the ending in Vietnam–the embassy roof scene–is that much more horrific than what is already happening on the ground, or what is to come if we keep looking for a way to save all the people we’ve already left hanging out to dry. I think trying to avoid humiliation and deny impending failure is just going to make it worse.
As for the companies over there that believed the US government and/or tried to cash in on US reconstruction bucks–they’ll have ample time to get out of there. But yes, no doubt those who openly allied themselves with the US will be in danger. But given all the cross-cutting tensions, who won’t be in danger (even the Kurds esconsed in their territory will have to worry)?
~J~ Says:
June 4th, 2007 at 9:11 pmVisit ~J~
Can’t argue with that either, Andrew. Except if we do pull out before it’s relatively safe (who knows how long?) we should make provision for those who put their lives on the line to help us and US companies over there. We just left the Vietnamese to their own fates and I would hope Congress would have the compassion to make some sort of provision to prevent something like that happening again on such a wide scale.
If we allow this to happen again everyone in the world, including terrorists, will know for certain we are indeed paper tigers and our word means nothing.
That’s why I feel it’s important for us to get as many of the bad guys as possible and try to get Maliki or whomever to get a stable government with police and military trained by us to protect their citizens.