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Take clear-eyed look at Iraq

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Raymond Takashi Swenson | 8:59 a.m. Sept. 12, 2007
When Democrats repeatedly try to compare Iraq to Vietnam, they apparently are unwilling to take the analogy the next step. When America withdrew not only its troops but also its financial support from South Vietnam, the invasion by North Vietnamese tank battalions resulted in tens of thousands dead or tortured and millions of refugees, the lucky ones finding their way to the United States.

It does not take a genius to understand that "yanking out the Yanks" will lead to similar chaos, killings, torture, and millions of Iraqi refugees seeking entry to America. The Muslim population of the US could double or triple overnight. The creation of a vacuum of power in Iraq would be a powerful temptation to mischief by Iran and multiply suffering in Iraq a hundredfold. And it will be obvious to the whole world that those who pull American troops out before Iraq is secured will be directly responsible for all of that avoidable suffering.

Democrats repeatedly criticize President Bush for not looking ahead to the consequences of the invasion. Yet Democrats absolutely refuse to discuss the obvious growth of killing and mayhem and chaos in Iraq and the Middle East that will result from an early withdrawal of US forces. They do not make any plans for where they will house the Iraqi refugees who put their lives on the line to help the US forces, or how they will be resettled. They have not procured ships and planes to rescue and transport those refugees. The cost of a pullout, and the deaths resultking, will dwarf the slow rated of US casualties now.
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NCG | 12:20 p.m. Sept. 12, 2007
We aren't leaving Iraq. Notice the the Dem candidates for Prexy are lying low on this issue. Hilary is not going to pull out and leave the battlefied we have secured in the middle east and let the mad mullahs of Iran hold our country hostage to blackmail over oil by the middle east and our south american enemy Chavez. If the American people go to the grocery store and the shelves are empty because the trucks are out of fuel, the liberal big govenment groups and the anti war groups would be the first to hold the government responsible for feeding them. We will be in the middle east until our cars are running on hydrogen, and nuclear powers our plants so settle down and get used to it. We have secured two countries of 50,000,000 with 200,000 troops and have Al Queda pinned down in the Hindu Kush and have made a new and powerful ally, India sitting on the other side of Pakistan while we train our guns on them from Afghanistan. Congress isn't going to vote to bring the troops home either. They know the capitol is target number 1 for Al Queda and other Islamofascists. So let's keep Al Queda stuck in those mountains til Osama beard turns gray again. Our boys will blow his head off if he sticks it out.
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Lew Jeppson | 1:40 p.m. Sept. 12, 2007
Senator Chuck Hagel kept asking Patraeus, if we are buying time, time for what? Well, I'll tell you what. We are buying time to allow the administration to invade Iran and/or Syria. The general's remarks were riddled with allusions to Iranian interference in Iraq, all of which went unquestioned as in the congress' wont. Unless we leave Iraq soon the administration will take us into an Armegeddon-like war with a whole generation of young Americans as sacrifice.
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Spanish Fork | 3:04 p.m. Sept. 12, 2007
Iraq is such a political issue now that we will have to wait until next summer. The Bush Administration has either intentionally or unintentionally prolonged this "war." Late 2003 Rumsfeld said, "It would be a long hard slog," but continued on the cheap as if there were no urgency to end it. Now the democrats are playing a political game with the "war" and if they win the election, may find themselves getting the blame for forcing the U.S. out in retreat which could inflame the entire region, as well as other parts of the world. Sometimes it is best not to get what you wish for.
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