The"Cut And Run" Argument

Democrats want to set up a timetable to withdraw our troops from Iraq, and they have a few points on their side to support such a move.

The republicans want to "stay the course", and they also have a few points to support their views.

The democrats say that until we set a definite date to leave, the coalition supported Iraqi government will be quite content to just let us do all the hard work, spend all the money, do all the re-constructing.

The republicans are saying to do that would send the "wrong signals" to the terrorists and show the world America doesn't have the guts to see it through. To "see it through"... just like we did in Korea, in Viet Nam, in Somalia, in Bosnia, for example.

The republicans, in a well-used and successful tactic, are accusing the democrats of wanting to just "cut and run". This was pretty effective in the last round of elections, when most of us believed that Saddam really did have weapons of mass destruction and that they would be found, when most of us believed that Iraq was supporting the terrorists, that Osama and Saddam were working in concert on the 9-11 attack, when most of us actually believed President Bush when he told us all that Saddam was only "weeks away" from attacking the United states with a nuclear weapon, when we all believed Secretary of State Powell when he stated that they knew exactly where all these WMD's were stored in Iraq.

The democrats, perhaps actually taking a lesson from history, have noted that Americans really don't have the stomach for long, drawn-out wars that squander national treasure and lives in an apparently endless flow, and are playing to the now majority of Americans who want this thing finished.

Perhaps even Bush and crowd sense this growing feeling of frustration over this war with a country that had nothing to do with 911, had no remaining WMD's, had no plans to attack the United States, and had no connection with Osama or the Saudi Arabian terrorists that actually did attack us.

It may be impossible for some pro-war Americans to realize that -- after Desert Storm -- Saddam had decided to leave America alone, just as Libya's Kadafi had previously decided after one of our bombs almost killed him. Both dictators had decided to keep to themselves, rather than prod the US into another attack, an attack they would have no possible way to defend against, and could only hide as their entire national infrastructure would be destroyed.

That's why Saddam never took us seriously over Bush's public threats to invade. He had actually done what he was told to do after Desert Storm, got rid of his remaining chemical and biological WMD's, and abandoned his nuclear ambitions, preferring instead -- like Libya's Kadafi -- to stay in control of whatever was left of their respective little empires.

Saddam must have figured that -- after years of inspections by UN search teams -- that the world knew and understood that he was out of the WMD business, that Bush really had no justification whatever to attack Iraq, other than to remove -- at American expense -- another of Israel's numerous enemies. It appears he did not believe that Americans in general would tolerate such an action, particularily a "pre-emoptive" one, a fancy way of saying "sneak attack". He mis-understood the power of the American media and it's ability to propagandize and brainwash a gullible and unthinking America.

The polls now show that more and more Americans are starting to figure this all out by themselves, even with all this relentless propagandizing to the contrary.

When Americans got fed up with Viet Nam, the federal government really did "cut and Run". It had no choice.., federal government politicians preferred to stay in office, rather than uphold the honor and reputation of America.

This will happen again in Iraq. You can see it happening. Americans want out of a war we never should have gotten into, and are realizing that taking one on the chin from international opinion and a huge blackeye in the honor department are just two of the prices we will pay to get out. So the politicians, democrats at first, belatedly followed by a thundering herd of republicans, will end this war, while the president -- continuing to demonstate his astounding ability to remain clueless -- will defiantly jut his chin out on national TV and pout a lot.

We -- you, me, all Americans -- should be humiliated and embarrassed by this coming Viet Nam style "cut and run". It will be announced as "troop reductions" and all manner of deceptive descriptions, but it will be just another "cut and run", another moment of national shame brought down on our heads by a stupid man in high office and his war-mongering advisors.

Maybe this time we will finally learn the lesson that allowing American presidents to run roughshod over anywhere in the world they may choose, sending our troops into sovereign nations only on the claims of a man like Bush... so easily fooled -- by lousy intelligence, he claimed later -- is something we can no longer afford.