Winning the Peace in Iraq

I'll be the first one to admit I was not a fan of John Kerry. I wanted Howard Dean to win, then Edwards. Kerry would have been my last choice. That said I totally agree with his campaign statements about how we Win the Peace in Iraq.

The past few days there has been alot of discussion on the Truthout forum about the topic of the war in Iraq. I'm in the minority there as far as not demanding an immediate pull out of our troops now. I also from past experience see the attempts to boycott, protest, etc as not being successful on this issue.

The emotional reactions to this war which include demanding an immediate pull out or impeaching Bush are normal, however we have to get beyond the emotion. That is one of the primary comments I hear about Liberals "You're all so emotional". Emotion is not a bad thing, it shows care, concern, love of our country. It can be used against us though, and the Republicans have become very adept at that.

I'm not proposing we all get down on our knees and say "All Hail Bush". What I have suggested is rather than trying to circumvent the political system in Washington that we try to make it work for us. I believe most of what John Kerry proposed during his campaign would still work. The problem is we are not putting enough pressure on both the Democrat and Republican Congress to let them know this is what we want. We've let ourselves get sidetracked with Jeff Gannon and Social Security and myriad of other issues rather than focusing on what we need to do right now today to get our troops home ASAP.

From Kerry's website:

John Kerry and John Edwards will make the creation of a stable and secure environment in Iraq our immediate priority in order to lay the foundations for sustainable democracy. That is the right way to get the job done and bring our troops home. John Kerry and John Edwards believe the following principles should guide American policy in Iraq right now and that if these steps are not taken, options in the future will become more limited. This needs to be an urgent agenda to:

Internationalize, because others must share the burden;
Train Iraqis, because they must be responsible for their own security;

Just because Kerry didn't win is no reason this plan should be put aside. Democrats may have lost the bid for the Whitehouse but they are still a very important part of the political process. Many Republicans have voiced the need for a plan to get our troops out of Iraq, so on this issue we can get non-partisanship support. That is what it is going to take to get out of Iraq. We may not be able to Internationalize under Bush but we have been offered help in training Iraqi security forces. We have not utilized this in anywhere near the numbers we could. That could be corrected fairly quickly as well which would have a huge impact on the numbers of Iraqis that are being trained. We also need to better protect those Iraqis who are volunteering, they should not be killed or injured while trying to take steps to get their country back.

I'm not suggesting anyone give up the demand to end the war now, or to continue to gain public support in an impeachment process, what I am asking is that you also consider embracing this idea as an additional goal. That way if you are successful in getting a Troop withdrawl there will be more Iraqi security forces trained which would better assist Iraq in standing on their own. To leave Iraq without giving them the ability to secure their own country we are following the history of encouraging them then leaving them to their own fate. We have done that in the past which has caused a great deal of the hatred and resentment felt in the Middle East. If we do that we are proving that we believe we are superior, that somehow American lives are worth more than Iraqis. The goal should be to try to prevent all loss of life, today, tomorrow, forever.