An Iraqi Civil war is still a failure
Reader comment on item: Civil war likely in Iraq: Pipes
in response to reader comment: Bleeding hearts to prevail.

Submitted by Ben Shniper (United States), Mar 6, 2006 at 14:58

True, the Al Queda brutes and the Iranian -influenced mullahs are both fighting to involve the country in a civil war noone else wants. And true, they want to cause thousands of deaths simply to embarrass America and possibly regain some power over the rubble. And it is further true that we hold no real moral responsibility for the evils of these two groups. And further true that the best way to avoid the embarrassing failure would be to distance ourselves from Iraq's troubles.

But none of that makes a civil war in a country we've invested billions into anything but an abject failure. It's too big of an investment, with billions of treasure and years of time and thousands of American lives spent. You can't tell me we spent all that effort just to have a different dictator in a country on the other side of the world. Nor could you tell me that watching thousands of locals butchering each other is anything the worst possible outcome for that country.

Evil can win the game even if we think we aren't playing. And pretending like we don't care about Iraq is going to really upset any allies or potential allies in the region. True, it's easier on us if there is a civil war - so long as the Al Queda and Iranians are killing each other. But that's clearly not happening... because both are aiming their guns at the vulnerable Iraqi people in the middle.

This is what happened in vietnam, to some extent. Both the North and South Vietnamese gave up any hope of doing anything but killing as many of the "enemy" as possible, until the US had no choice but to leave. And why did we not see it? We lost the war, got blamed for the war and the deaths, and had to watch communists butcher millions in the region. But we didn't start the war, and we carefully avoided causing civilian casualties. But good intentions are not really an excuse.

The truth is, we need to step in and stop the Iraqi civil war, for humanity, for ourselves, and for our own maybe even for our own souls. For you see - noone else can, and noone else will stop it. Thus, in the eyes of the world, who but us will be to blame if we don't try our best? Iraq is like a burning building, and we are simply the nearest firefighter. Would you blame that firefighter if the building burns to the ground while the firefighter sat back and watched?

-Ben

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