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Any candidate who espouses a complete and immediate withdrawl from Iraq is not only being a bit intellectually dishonest but is engaging in the worst kind of patronization possible for a politician.

Iraq, as recent news reports which have managed to leak through the negative bias of the mainstream media, is becoming increasingly self reliant. More and more of Iraqi troops are getting the training and the "Seasoning" that troops need to have in order to perform effectively in the security environment which they currently operate.

Accordingly, the US Commander in charge of troops in Iraq has been fairly vocal about the readiness and capacity of the new Iraqi troops. Recent developments have even led the current administration to consider a manageable withdrawal schedule.

Let me be absolutely clear though, It is pretty clear to me that this would only be a major withdrawal of "combat" troops. The state of Iraqi infrastructure for all but the ruling bath party loyalists was dismal before we went into Iraq. Additionally, the campaign to rid Iraq of a brutal dictatorial regime, further degraded already poor infrastructure facilities. Since the stated end of combat operations, we have had almost as many combat engineers as well as civilian specialist assisting the fledgling iraqi democracy with its infrastucutre needs and as recent developments have shown, that will likely continue for some time.

The extreme left elements within the Democrat party are always against war, of any kind, for any reason, with one exception. That exception is to ensure that everyone else thinks and believes as they do. Their real hatred is not for the war in Iraq, but the current president. If an deocrat were to be elected, it is likely that they would continue operations as is since it is likely that by November we will start to see troop withdrawals from Iraq anyway.
It will be interesting, should a democrat be elected, whether they will follow through on their campaign and congressional rhetoric about Afghanistans importance over Iraq. Will they continue to commit troops and resources to shore up a fragile economy and government in Afghanistan, will they continue to commit resources to rebuild and stabilize the Iraqi Economy? My hope is that the answer to both those questions is yes. As the economies in those countries modernize and the citizens begin to enjoy some of the benefits of other free societies the will be less inclined to support and defend groups like Al-Qaeda and other islamic extremists.

Learn more about this author, Larry Head.
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