Bottom Line Up Front: America has failed Iraqis for over a decade and cannot give in to the Democrats' scheme to double cross them by withdrawing military troops.
This is the first of a three part series addressing the case for war in the context of Democrats’ hope to withdraw troops from Iraq before the mission is completed.
The United States has been letting Iraqis down for well over a decade. Only a year after Saddam Hussein forced his way into leadership of Iraq in July 1979, he started a war with Iran in 1980. The war ended in 1988 and cost millions of lives. Two years later in 1990, Saddam invaded and annexed Kuwait, essentially bringing war to his people again as the U.S. lead an United Nations coalition to liberate Kuwait in August of 1990. By March 1991, the Gulf War was over and Iraq accepted the terms of the cease fire.
Iraqis, primarily the persecuted majority Shiite population, hoped the United States would end Saddam’s reign of war and terror in 1991. Many plotted to overthrow Saddam with the backing of the United States, but when the U.S. and coalition forces pulled out of Iraq leaving Saddam in power, Hussein unleashed a wrath of fury against those Iraqis who supported coalition forces and coup.
The United States, which had urged Iraqis to rise up against Saddam, did nothing to assist the rebellions. At least 100,000 Iraqis were brutally murdered by Saddam as a result.
In 1992, the U.S. government created the Iraqi National Congress (INC), based in London, with the sole purpose of overthrowing Saddam. Since then, the U.S. stood by while Saddam lived off the blood of his people through the U.N. Oil for Food scandal and could not force Saddam to comply with U.N. resolutions… until the invasion in 2003.
Now Democrats want the U.S. to pull troops out of Iraq before the country has stabilized, against the wishes of Iraq, the U.S. government and American soldiers. If a military withdrawal from Iraq were to occur, we could forget Iraq as an ally or partner in the war on terror. The opposite would be true. Iraqis would see this final blow by the United States as an unforgivable sin and Iraq would be overrun by Iran and al-Qaeda. The people of Iraq would be subjugated to more brutality and violence simply because the U.S. Congress and Senate put politics over principle, rhetoric over reason and callousness over compassion.
Should the United States sacrifice Iraq for political expediency? No, and it is morally wrong for Democrats to continue with their dangerously reckless plan to hurt the Iraqi people one last time.
Cross-posted @: Bottom Line Up Front