We should stay in Iraq until the job is done.

I fail to see the relevance of congress authorizing the use of force, but since you bring it up: President Bush told Senators that Iraq had the capabilities to launch an attack on the US Eastern seaboard using chemical, and biological weapons. (1) Two years later it was clear to the Senators, as well as the US public that Iraq never had the capabilities for such an attack. The president misled the American public and it's governing body in order to carry out an attack on Iraq. (1) At the beginning of the Iraq war the UN security counsel was directly opposed to US intervention in Iraq. (2) You assert that 35 countries supported US action, you fail to cite that claim, which leads me to question it's validity. In the invasion of Iraq in 2003 98% of the force was British and American. (3). Even if your assertion is true (which I don't concede), it would appear that only one country supported us enough to commit a significant number of troops. The Iraq war is nothing more than a unilateral conflict masquerading as a necessity for the people of Iraq. This is a prime example of the US hegemony intervening in other countries affairs falsely trumpeting democracy and the safety of US citizens, with an utter disregard for the will of the people. But here's my main and brilliant arguemnt: In your opening statement you say: "we should stay in Iraq until the job is done." This leaves me somewhat confused. What exactly is THE JOB? Since you failed to define it, I think I'll take the initiative. The job we had in Iraq was neutralizing a threat that we allegedly faced from the Iraqi government. A secondary objective was removing Saddam Hussein from power and establishing democracy in the country. We've done both those things, so I suppose it's time to leave. Since the job is complete I'm sure you'll support me when I call for immediate troop withdrawal from Iraq. Huzzah! The war is over. Unfortunately some people don't agree with us. They think that we should stay in Iraq until the job is long over. For those people, I post these arguemnts: 1. Loss of life. To date 3,123 American soldiers have died in engagements with Iraqi militia and insurgent groups. But that pales in comparison to the estimate of Iraqi civilians killed in the conflict. It's estimated that upwards of 150,000 civilians have died as a result of insurgent attacks spurred on by the presence of US forces. (4) 2. Cost to the US. As of October 2007 it was estimated that the US had spent around 604 billion dollars. If troop reductions occurred but the US still had a pretense in Iraq up until 2017 the war would cost a total of 2.4 trillion dollars to US tax payers. (5) 3. Troop levels. Even if we do stay in Iraq, we currently have insufficient troop levels to control the entire country. To successfully keep peace in a nation-building country it's estimated that there should be about 20 troops per 1000 people in the population. Currently the US has just over 6 troops per 1000 population. (6) 4. Build up of anti-American sentiment as well as the number of terrorists. The Iraq war has been used as a recruiting tool for terrorists groups around the globe. (7) 5. Inhumane practices. Including but not limited to: -The Abu Ghraib prison scandal, involving torture and abuse of prisoners. -The rape and murder of a 14 year old girl by 5 US soldiers (8) -The Haditha killings -The shooting of civilians by the security company Blackwater 6. Iraqi citizens don't want US troops in their country. In a poll conducted in September 2006 7 out of 10 Iraqis supported the idea of US troops withdrawing fully within one year. (9) 7. This war is causing a decline in US soft power. In a poll conducted in January 2007 73% of people polled around the globe thought the US was handling the invasion of Iraq badly. (10) Currently the US is policing a country at war with itself. The sectarian violence taking place in Iraq is resulting in the deaths of thousands of people, and the US is caught in between trying to keep the peace with insufficient numbers. If this country cares about it's troops, or cares about the people of Iraq, they would call for an immediate troop withdrawal. Staying in Iraq is bad for them, and it's bad for us. Looking forward to hearing from you, my new ally in bringing the troops home. -Matt 1 - http://www.fas.org... 2 - https://pastel.diplomatie.gouv.fr... 3 - http://geocities.com... 4 - http://www.iht.com... 5 - http://www.reuters.com... 6 - http://www.rand.org... 7 - http://www.nytimes.com... 8 - http://www.cnn.com... 9 - http://www.worldpublicopinion.org... 10 - http://news.bbc.co.uk...