Iraq: Should we be responsible for its problems?

Presidential candidates have been talking about the issue of Iraq all the time. The question has been whether to withdraw or not to withdraw? This question has been plaguing the mind of the American. Most of us want our soldiers home. They want them back from a war that should never have taken place. Even our young adults and teenagers realize the devastation that has occurred in Iraq as can be seen in websites like online competitions – claiming that Iraq should never have happened and that Iraq is second to Israel in being the most war torn country in the world.

This is the problem…. Whether or not it should have happened is no longer the issue. It already has happened. We started a war in Iraq. Should we finish it by pulling out troops from Iraq? It may be an ethnic war that does not involve America, BUT, it is an ethnic war that re-emerged because America invaded Iraq. Without a legitimate leader and a stable Iraqi government, how can these outbreaks of ethnic wars be controlled?

I read an article today in the New York Times, “Desertion or a Break? An Iraqi Gives His Side.” It was about this Iraqi captain who went on a 3-day break while his battalion was fighting at the forefront. He extended his break for 2 more days making it 5-day break and is now being questioned as to whether he has deserted his men or not.

He defended himself by saying that with the problems with waging this war he needed this extended break. He enumerated the different problems of the Iraqi army – lack of ammunition, very low morale, death threats from the Mahdi Army, the opponents, who are all fighting within their city of residence.

The Mahdi Army is a loyalist Shiite group which emerged after the Americans invaded Iraq as their leader; al Sadr claimed that the Americans were there to kill the Mahdi, the leader.

According to this captain, the idea was that the Iraqi army will be allowed to handle their own problem with the US army serving as their support troops. But this captain was saying that they were no match for the Mahdi Army and that they do not have the skill or the weapon to fight this battle.

I believe that the reason the American soldiers in Iraq backed off was because of the amount of pressure they were getting for fighting an ethnic war that “should” not include the Americans. But isn’t this ethnic war, although it started millennia ago, was reignited by the American invasion.

Here now is my dilemma – I agree this is not our war and I want our soldiers home. But I also believe that we are partly at fault for the outbreak that has currently happened. Shouldn’t we somehow stabilize the Iraq before we leave? We already mistakenly invaded the country; shouldn’t we at least fix the damage and the collateral damage that we caused?

Instead of asking what is the most war torn country, maybe we should use these online competitions as a sort of poll to figure out what others believe about this situation….

This is a bad situation… and it’s a lose-lose situation… being the most powerful country in the world… what can we do?