by Armywriter

Created on: December 14, 2008

The question does insist that Iraq is stable. It is asking should we pull out whether or not they can defend themselves. So I ask this; Should we stop a boxing fight whether or not a boxer is able to defend himself? The fact is that what is going on in Iraq is not black and white. It really isn't as simple as "okay you got an established military, we're gonna leave. Good luck."

What we are fighting in Iraq is more than just terrorism and insurgency. We are fighting against poverty, against major corruption of the politicians and we are fighting to maintain peace between the Shiites and Sunni's. We are fighting to rebuild what we demolished and we are fighting to be able to leave Iraq as a solid nation, not one barely able to defend itself. We owe Iraq that at least.

My opinions on the war do not matter. I have no political stance on what has happened and I am pretty sure that no matter what the reason was that started our presence in Iraq it does not change the fact that we are there now. So what is the current situation and what is the best way to go from here. That should be America's stance on the conflict, not demanding we just pull out because things aren't ideal.

Iraq's military is slowly but surely coming around. We have turned over provinces to the IA (Iraqi Army) and have continued to work in regions that have a need for an economic jolt. We are stabilizing Iraq but this cannot happen over night. With our presence we know that the contractors working on rebuilding the schools and other structures are able to do their jobs without relying on a sub par military force that has been found to be corrupt. Furthermore we know that with our military providing pressure on the terrorists we are far more likely to see a decline in terrorist organizations in Iraq.

Of course there are other reasons why our military should stay. Barrack Obama confirmed in a television interview on "Meet The Press" that we will leave troops in Iraq for some time. When asked why he feels we should leave troops there when he promised during his campaign over the summer that he would bring them all out of Iraq he simply said that things have changed. I don't know what has changed. I know everyday we make a little bit of progress and we are reaping the benefits of the surge led by the Third Infantry Division and their commander, Major General Rick Lynch. Since then violence is down and we have had the luxury of seeing record lows for casualties over these last several months. If that isn't progress I don't know what is.

Nonetheless Obama also confirmed that we will have an embassy there and of course there will need to be troop presence to protect that embassy. So there will always be at least some troops there. Another reason we need to stay whether or not Iraq can defend itself is the detainee problem. Camp Bucca, Iraq swelled during the surge and is now the largest detainee facility in the world. We are still working on a better system for trials and releasing those detainees. We need to maintain a presence and see that problem through because we cannot risk leaving the decision of releasing terrorists to the Iraqi goverment at the moment.

With all this being said I'm not sure the Iraqi people really want us to leave. It mainly will depend on the region but I can say that the smaller communities seem to want us there because they have a harder time both protecting themselves and maintaining the basic essentials for improving their community.

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