Before we bang on the drums and insist on a quick pullout from Iraq, we need to turn our attention from the political ramifications of a withdrawal and look at what has happened in an area in Iraq from which our military have retreated already.
The niceties are up for debate: phased or partial withdrawal from Iraq would entail pulling troops back to their bases across the country, or leapfrogging backward to the nearest international border, or redeploying to bases in nearby countries. But whatever the final prescription, the debate must include a sober look at the street-level impact of withdrawal. What will become of Iraqi villages, towns and cities as we pull out? Although past is not necessarily prologue, recent experience in Anbar Province may be instructive.
American units have already withdrawn from the western Euphrates River valley — twice, in fact. As the insurgency heated up in early 2004, the Seventh Marine Regiment pulled up stakes and went to fight insurgents in eastern Anbar, leaving the rest of the province in the hands of a battalion of troops. The Marines balanced obvious risk against the possible reward of overwhelming some of the insurgent groups in the east.
The consequences were immediate and bloody. Insurgents assumed control of several towns and villages. They tortured and executed police officers, local politicians, friendly tribal leaders and informants. They murdered contractors who had worked with the Americans or the Iraqi government. They tore down American-financed reconstruction projects and in a few cases imposed an extreme version of Islamic law. Many Iraqi military units collapsed in the absence of United States support.
We don't want to lose any more American lives in Iraq. But how many Iraqis are we willing to sacrifice to a bungling, indecisive withdrawal? Ben Connable, a Marine Corps major, lays out the options and their moral consequences.
Our own moral dilemma is this: our wholly discredited, probably criminal, leadership took us into an illegal war. Among the victims of that war are the citizens of a country we invaded illegally. Which group is due the greater consideration: our misused young military, the "boots on the ground," who should be brought home as quickly as possible? or the people whose lives we've put at enormous risk, and who have depended on us for protection? Where does our greater moral duty lie?
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