The Endicott Enquirer News from the Southern Tier

Mail Call – A Rarity, I Agree on a Political / Military Stance

"I would like for people to forget their 'I hate Bush and everything he does' for a few minutes and seriously think about what would happen if we left Iraq now. Iraq is full of terrorists of many kinds, including al-Qaida. This is a fact I got from my son, who was just there. Would you want to turn the country over to these 'people' who have no qualms about blowing women and children up, using Down Syndrome victims for their purposes, and have no regard for life? You would be throwing innocent people to the wolves, along with the oil revenue to use to spread their terror further. Terrorists are not like we are. They have one objective - to kill anyone who does not share their warped version of Islam. Please think before you speak."

Mail Call - The Herald-Mail Online - News for Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia

For once I agree with something in mail call, this person is absolutely right that we could not simply up and leave in Iraq, as we would be turning it over to the Iranians which would be worse than what we've got now.

Here is where I stand:

1. Establish a timeline that we can actually adhere to, one which provides a realistic amount of time for the Iraqi government to get their act together and shape up.
2. Establish a realistic victory scenario. This is not wiping out all terrorism in the middle east, I have news for you all, it isn't going to happen. This should be more like getting a government together that would work to try and sort out the social issues without killing each other first.
3. Begin a draw down of troops now. We need to make the Iraqi government realize that it is their country and they need to commit to training their soldiers to fill the gaps. If they can't agree on this then we may be destined to see the country slip away from us regardless of the progress militarily.
4. Begin to seriously promote national unification under the banner of the state rather than that of individual sects. This is going to be the hardest thing to do and could take time, but to be truly successful this must happen.

I'm sure these could all be elaborated on quite a bit but since I am not running for national office I will put them out there for others to see and then hopefully policy makers will see them someday.