by Austin Vail

Created on: May 26, 2007   Last Updated: August 27, 2010

We will need to pull out of Iraq at some point anyway, so might as well start planning for it now. This project is too expensive to keep up. Imagine if we had instead blown all those billions of dollars on our domestic issues, not that anyone would have mind you, but the point is we're wasting a ton of money every single day we stay in Iraq.

The opposite side warns of dire consequences if we pull out. Yes, and they warned about all sorts of things before, and none of that came to pass. Actually, the critics of the Iraq project have been more accurate at their forecasts than the supporters. I don't have much faith in the current warnings of impending doom if we pull out.

The unfortunate part of this is that we will not pull out until the GOP tells President Bush to do so. I can see this happening next year, depending on how things go in Iraq until then. But will President Bush listen to the GOP? I'm not sure that he would. And might conditions improve in Iraq? Not sure about that either. The Surge is supposed to show results by September of this year, so I'll give it the benefit of doubt until then.

Nevertheless, we should start planning for the pullout. We don't have to broadcast it to the world or advertise timeframes. We should by now realize the value of planning, especially when it comes to trying a project as huge as Iraq has become. The seriousness of this was underestimated at its beginning, and pulling out isn't going to be easy either. This is not a question of if we should but when we should and how we will get out of that unfortunate undertaking.

It all comes down to this. What counts more, the United States of America or Iraq? To US citizens, it has to be the US over Iraq. To Iraqi citizens, it must be Iraq over the US. If the Iraqis decide to murder each other because one Islamic side hates the other and vise versa, let them figure out how to get along. We have our own problems to handle.

So what if Iraqi terrorists want to swim to US shores or however that threat goes. We've got our security tighter and can make it even more so. That's really where the Iraqi project money ought to be going, to protect the US and not Iraq. I'd prefer that it had been spent on something worthwhile to this country, but it's too late for that. Some mistakes can never be taken back, and this has turned out to be a super-sized one with no discounts.

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