Charlie’s House

Both Senator Obama & Senator Clinton are promising to remove our troops from Iraq almost immediately upon their election. While I certainly don’t believe that the terrorists will “follow us home.” I do believe that an immediate pull out in Iraq is probably the worst thing we can do.

I liken the situation in Iraq to a domestic disturbance. Saddam Hussein is an abusive father. The citizens of Iraq are his abused children. The US plays the role of the well meaning police department. It plays out pretty simply: After years of abusing his family and supporting criminal activities in his neighborhood, the police opt to raid the Hussein household and take the bastard into custody. The children in the home are initially very happy to see the police storm through the front door. Mr. Hussein hides in the basement for a while, but eventually the police find him and drag him to jail, where he belongs.

Sounds great so far.

Here’s the problem. The police opt to move into the Hussein household in order to teach the ‘children’ how to be ‘productive members of society’ (ie a democracy). The police then toss out anyone in authority in the Hussein household because those authorities were associated with the abusive father and are probably going to be abusive as well (makes sense, right?). Now, the only authority figures in the house are the police and those persons that the police have selected – through one means or another – to be the new authorities. One more wrinkle: the police are not particularly liked in the Hussein neighborhood. For whatever reason the neighbors believe that the police are corrupt, and need to be expelled from the Hussein household at best, and at worst simply want the police dead.

Imagine you are the children of the Hussein household. You’re glad the police showed up – even if they did kick down the door and destroy most of the furniture. But then they move in. They make it clear that they are going to be there a while, and what’s worse: they tell you that the way you’ve been doing things is wrong. Who wouldn’t get mad? Would you want the police setting up camp in your living room? No. Even if you thought the police were genuinely interested in helping you, you’d want them out as quickly as possible. When the criminal elements in the neighborhood start riddling your house with bullets because they hate the cops, you want them out that much more. Some of the kids might even join with the criminals in order to get the police out.

So far, this probably seems like a good reason for us to pull out. But here’s where things twist.

If the police decide to pull out, who becomes the authority of the Hussein household? The leaders formally supported by the police will almost certainly be killed by the criminals in the neighborhood. Even with police support, these leaders are occasionally murdered. Take that support away, and the Iraqi leaders won’t last long at all. With the Iraqi leaders removed, a power vacuum will all but force someone to take control. Hopefully, that new leader will be someone who supports the police. But it is far more likely that the criminals will take over, and will themselves be ousted by one of Iraq’s neighbors after years of abuse and bloodshed.

Both Clinton & Obama want to pull us out of Iraq. But, that plan is hugely short-sighted. As much as I deplore the methods used to get us involved in Iraq, we have to stay there until things approach some level or normalcy. We Americans made this mess, we have to see it through to the end. To do anything else is going to simply bring the Iraqi people more grief, and make our “enemies” stronger.

To my mind, we have to be permanent residents in Iraq for 10-20 years or more.

I’m hoping that if elected, Obama will recognize the error of his plan, and will reconsider. Clinton, however, knows exactly what the cost of a withdrawal will be, and doesn’t care. Somehow, she’s convinced herself that we don’t have a responsibility to the Iraqi people, and that if we leave a power vacuum it will somehow magically fill with pro-American rainbows and sunshine. If Clinton has the experience she’s been touting, she’s knows this is pure wishful thinking. (Of course, as an experienced politician, it’s likely she’s just telling Democratic voters what they want to hear.)

McCain, on the other hand, seems to have a pretty firm grasp of whats really at stake. He’s not using the Bush fear-o-matic to get people into line, but he’s also no dummy. I don’t agree with McCain on a lot of issues, but at least he’s not got his head in the sand with regard to Iraq.