Iraq Hearings: To Withdraw or Not to Withdraw

Well, General Petraeus and Ambassador Ryan Crocker gave an update on Iraq today (More information can be found here). This article (different from the first one) offers some interesting insight about the situation. It seems an important perspective on the issue that is often overlooked is that of the Iraqi citizens who whether we like it or not are more deeply affected by this war than any other group involved in it. In a you broke it you bought it situation like Iraq I believe we should take into account how they feel. I regret to say that the democratic candidates have missed this point.

Anyways, according to the article it seems like many Iraqis, especially Iraqi soldiers, would prefer if we would stay in Iraq. I have to say I agree with them even though I disagree with many of Bush's policies in general, and specifically I disagree with America invading Iraq in the first place.

I refuse to make my mind up about any candidate before the general election gets closer (and I encourage all of you to do the same) because it doesn't make sense to me to decide anything before all the facts have been weighed in, but right now I am leaning towards Mccain. This is because of his stance on health care (but thats a topic for another post) and Iraq. Yes I know it is a complicated, drawn out war, which has essentially been a "waste" of time and money for America as well as a huge distraction from more important issues, the important thing is that now that we've caused these problems we fix them.

History can teach us some lessons; take a look at Europe after World War II, we conquered and then left without rebuilding or ensuring any sustainable peace in the region. What happened? A regime even more terrible than the one we ousted rose to power. While something that dramatic hopefully wouldn't happen if we withdrew from Iraq, I would like to know that we took responsibility for our actions and left a positive mark in the Middle East instead of so many negative ones.

Tell me what you think about it. Should we withdraw, should we remain, or is there some other option I did not think of?