[Peace-discuss] It's Time to Leave Iraq

[David Green]

THE CENTER FOR ECONOMIC AND POLICY RESEARCH

It's Time to Leave Iraq
By Mark Weisbrot
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This column was distributed to newspapers by
Knight-Ridder/Tribune 
Information Services on February 10, 2006. It was
printed in the Duluth 
News Tribune (MN) on February 11, 2006, the Aberdeen
News (SD) on February 
12, 2006, and the Pueblo Chieftan (CO) on February 12,
2006. If anyone 
wants to reprint it, please let us know.
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“This is a real war where people are getting killed,”
said Congressman 
John Murtha as he called for the withdrawal of troops
from Iraq last 
November. 

Murtha, the first Vietnam War veteran elected to
Congress and known for 
his close ties to the Pentagon, needed to say that
more than once: more 
than 90 percent of Americans are currently unaffected
by the war. The 
vast majority seem to find it easy to carry on their
daily lives as if 
there were no war at all. They haven’t even been asked
to pay for any of 
the enormous $251 billion dollar price tag that it has
cost so far. On 
the contrary, the majority have seen their taxes
reduced – only 
slightly for most people, but more significantly as we
move up the income 
ladder.

It is probably only because of this mass “living in
denial” about the 
war that bloody occupation, which has killed about
2,260 American troops 
and an uncounted tens of thousands of Iraqis,
continues. For those who 
are not moved by the human suffering, the economic
costs are sure to be 
noticed eventually: a recent study by Linda Bilmes and
Nobel Laureate 
economist Joseph Stiglitz put the eventual cost of the
war at more than 
$1 trillion, and possibly closer to $2 trillion. For a
comparison, 
think of three to six years of current Medicare
spending.

Most knowledgeable observers concluded that Murtha’s
plea for 
withdrawal represented the opinion of the top military
brass that he is close 
to. When the generals want out of a war, that is a
good reason to think 
about getting out.

But there are plenty of other good reasons. Most
importantly, the very 
presence of U.S. troops is the number one cause of
violence, terrorism, 
and a possible degeneration into a full-scale civil
war. The advocates 
of this war like to invoke possible nightmare
scenarios if the 
occupation forces leave. But they have scant evidence
that leaving will make 
things worse than staying. And in fact the evidence is
increasingly 
pointing in the opposite direction: the most extreme
elements, such as Al 
Quaeda of Mesopotamia, that have carried out suicide
bombings against 
civilians and have been pushing the Shiites closer to
open civil war 
against the Sunnis, derive their legitimacy from the
fact that they are 
opposing the U.S. troops.

When American soldiers leave, that legitimacy will
fade and the chances 
for a peaceful, negotiated solution will increase.

That the occupation is a major obstacle to ending the
violence in Iraq 
is also supported by reports of negotiations between
Sunni guerillas 
and the United States. A major sticking point for the
Sunnis, according 
to reports in the New York Times, is that the
Americans won’t offer a 
timetable for their withdrawal. A range of polls show
majorities of the 
Iraqis, as high as 82 percent in a recent poll by the
British Defense 
Ministry, want the U.S. troops out. 

Using Shiite troops and police to secure Sunni areas,
with resulting 
abuses and extra-judicial killings, also fans the
flames of ethnic hatred 
and promotes civil war.

But our government – as in Vietnam – doesn’t want to
leave until it can 
be assured of an Iraqi government that it can control.
And as in 
Vietnam, that is not going to happen. 

For more than half a century now, Washington has
consistently 
underestimated the motivating power of nationalism.
Amazingly, they continue in 
this self-deception even when facing people who are
willing to blow 
themselves up rather than live under U.S. occupation.

U.S. troops will leave Iraq when politicians here can
no longer support 
the occupation and expect to get re-elected – probably
not before that.
_____________________________________________________________________

Mark Weisbrot is co-Director of the Center for
Economic and Policy 
Research, in Washington, DC.
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