The Long Term
Reader comment on item: War as Social Work?

Submitted by Adam (United States), Jul 23, 2003 at 11:50

I have to disagree. To go into another country and topple its leadership, and then to simply pull out because the threat to our own country is gone, is reprehensible. At the very least, as you've said, we have to give the leaderless nation the tools to rebuild on their own; but, in the case of Iraq, it doesn't seem the US has even done that. To abandon a nation after having promised both that nation and our own that we would liberate them and give them freedom and democracy and what have you creates a very dangerous situation. Not necessarily immediately, but down the road and into the future. Look at Afghanistan-- was it not the US's retreat after we helped them get the USSR out there, and the betrayal of the promise to help afterwards, what led to the ascent of the Taliban?

Making a promise (especially so public a one) and then failing (or refusing) to follow through on it creates distrust and hatred that will only get stronger, until it explodes. Security now, yes, but not later.

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