Topic #34 - The US should adopt a timetable for Withdrawl from Iraq

As Pro, I will be defending that the United States should adopt a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq. Thus, the Polar opposite stance that my opponent will have to prove is that the united States should not adopt a timetable for withdrawlf from Iraq. To be judged by James Fong, Maximilian Powers, and Dan Alexander. Definitions: Timetable - A schedule listing the times at which certain events are expected to take place Withdrawal - retreat or retirement of an army or other military force from an area in which it was fighting In Laymans terms, The US needs to set up a time limit to get our troops out of Iraq This war has cost America. Not only finacially[ http://www.msnbc.msn.com... ] but with lives as well [http://www.npr.org...]. The war was started in direct retribution of the acts on September 11, 2001. Further reason was given stating that there were WMD's, when in the last 7 years, a continuous search has still come up with nothing. Our main concern was supposed to be either the capture or destruction of the Taliban and Al Quada, yet, the last time I heard mention of Osama Bin Laden's name was in mention of his driver's trial. Clearly we've strayed from our original path, and it is costing us every single day. There are very definite trends towards a recession ever since the war has gone on, most noticably in the housing market, food produce, and especially gas prices. All of which where doing relativly well during pre-war days ( I bet we can all remember at time when the pump cost just $1.29 per gallon). There is no denying that this war has set us back severly. What is very troubling though, is that we shouldn't even be in this rut in the first place. Our mission in Iraq, supposedly, is to rebuild it's government. The rub is, we were never asked to. What does this make us? Invader's, if not Conqueror's. We are occupying the State of Iraq. Does any of this sound familiar? It should, if you've ever taken U.S. History. In our early days, and by our I mean America's, we were occupied by Britain, and we did not like it. A foreign military, seemingly invinsible with better training and equiptment, patrolling our street, and enforcing their law from a country hundreds of miles away. So much did we dislike it that we eventually went to total war with them, and won. The British, despite our bias towards our own county, were also acting in their best interests, thinking us inept and unable to form and maintain our own government by ourselves. But we've certainly proved them wrong. Although we asked them many times to withdraw their troops, they didn't, probably also thinking they had a moral obligation towards us. Then came total war. My point in all this is that unless we learn from our very own history, we most certainly will be doomed to repeat it, but this time it will be much, much worse. Iraq has approved and submitted the request for US withdrawl [http://www.npr.org...] and we need to listen. We have no business being there. We were not asked, and we are not obligated. Our goal in this war is to avenge 9/11, and eradicated the terrorist threat, not rebuild a country, and especially not when they don't want us. We must get back on track and finish what we originally started before it hurts us even more than it already has. Whatever politics are going on there, they don't matter. They claim they can take care of themselves, and unless they want help, we have no obligation to assist them in any way. Our goal, selfish as it may sound, is to help ourselves by finishing the war on Terror so we can get back to our own problems, and by now, there are plenty.