Am I the only voice, crying in the wilderness?

I have been against the Iraq War since President Bush and his Neoconservative buddies first mentioned the possibility of invading the country. Whether Hussein had weapons of mass destruction or not wasn’t the issue in my mind. Instead, I worried about the morality of the United States making a preemptive invasion of any country. Yes, the 9/11/2001 attack on the World Trade Center was abhorrent and evil. It did not, however, make moral an invasion of a foreign country based on the assertion that it had ties to Al Qaeda. Such an invasion was and is immoral. To my mind, it smacks of “an eye for an eye” anachronistic Pentateuch world view, and I thought that the United States would achieve nothing but the reputation of the fat schoolyard bullyboy by pursuing a preemptive invasion of Iraq.

Time has proven me right. And, I am saying, "I told you so!"

I also assert that the only correct course today, nearly 4 years after the invasion is to leave Iraq. Yes, leave, immediately if not sooner. By staying we compound the original error. Even if President Bush had invaded with 200,000 troops and managed to secure a permanent victory and peace in Iraq, the only correct course would have been to leave immediately. Having botched the entire operation, there is no alternative but to leave because the longer we stay the more dangerous the civil war between the Shiah and Sunni becomes.

To those who say that we would leave a power vacuum in the Middle East, I say, what power vacuum? We seem to have created a power vacuum. If we leave, the players there might just be able to correct the situation. I might add that by staying, we are spending our hard earned capital on a mistaken enterprise, and that it threatens to break the treasury. Instead, we need to focus on actual/real problems around the world. Problems like North Korea, Iran, and global warming.

“A-hah,” you say. “But, Iran is part of the problem with Iraq!”

To which, I reply. “No, a destabilized Iraq is part of the problem for Iran, and we might be able to help, if we were willing to talk to Iran, rather than ignore her and/or threaten her.”

I also wonder what might be wrong with going to the United Nations? Is it so terrible to say, “We made a mistake?” Would it be wrong to ask the nations of the world for help to correct the problems we have created? I guess that would be up to another president since this one is unable to understand that he has created a huge mess in the first place.

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