The iraq question: should we stay or should we go?

[fastwalker]

Most people accept that Iraq is now a mess & teetering on the brink of civil war.... it appears that we have created a democracy to preside over a catastrophe... Iran is now emboldened and growing in influence within Iraq, whilst North Korea seems to have realised that far from inviting invasion, if you want to avoid invasion, you had better acquire, stockpile & test WMD.... As Colin Powell once said: "If you broke it.... you fix it" In view of this.... despite all the mistakes do we have no choice other than to stick it out regardless of the cost in lives and money....?

[maxximus]

the u.s. has no intentions of leaving iraq any time soon, iraq has the 3rd largest oil reserves on the planet and the cheapest per barrel to produce. they went there to get it and they will stay there until they have drained the whole region. http://www.fcnl.org/iraq/bases.htm there is link with a detailed article in my answer to the saddam hussain question.

[maxximus]

http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/images /blpic-mideastmap.htm

[fastwalker]

.... thanks Max....so thats what they mean by a new middle east... but i think you are fogetting something though.... we/ the yanks are in Iraq with the consent of a compliant Iraqi government.... what happens if the government (or rather the clerics pulling the strings behind the government) suddenly decide that they no longer wish to consent to having us there.... do we then occupy iraq by force?

[Lonnie]

The only reason its a compliant goverment, is because its the only one that was acceptable to the US, and the only reason the Brits are there, is because we've got a PM who will do anything to please, and keep on the right side of George Bush, including sending our boys to be killed, while burying his head in the sand.

Iraq is Bush's problem, let him sort it out.

[smudge]

I wholeheartedly agree with Lonnie - we should never have sent 'our' lads to Iraq in the first place!

The situation was bad enough before Bush & his 'mate' Tony intervened & it's now patently obvious things have been made worse by them doing so!

War is such a waste of human life (that's why I never got to meet my Grandad) - when will it all end!

[MrBen5]

Dont listen to this 'mislead' info that Iraq in on the breach of civl war. Its only certain parts that are very' sensitive'. These have always been like this. The main problem is the media and how they interpret it. Such as the BBC, they cal them insurgents, when actually they are terrorists. We cant just leave Iraq because the media says its out of control. What needs to happen is that more troops are sent to these rogue countries. They are intent on destroying anything that does not fit in their belief. there is no reasoning. When i was in Iraq, its like a sess pit. they are so far behind the times, Its unbelievable. Where i was ,the locals loved us. they were all into football and david beckham. We used to play matches with them. Every now and then you get the odd 'terrorist' try to approach and disrupt the bonding. But you get that in England too,(minus the rocket launchers). The world will have to accept that there is no hope for a lot of rogue countries, as they just do not want to even try to associate with the west. they are bred to hate...

[90DC]

Get our people out of that country, its not as if it was our battle in the first place, Blair just follows Bush, bring on 2007, as much as i dislike Gordon Brown i hate Blair twice as much, conservatives all the way

[MrBen5]

Its not gonna matter who you have in parliament. The conservatives have said they will send more troops too. If we just leave they will only try to detroy us...

[Marky B]

I hold no brief for Saddam Hussein - he is a murderous tyrant who can only be ranked alongside Hitler,Stalin etc. However,I think he has been chosen as a soft target in this so-called war on terror. Bush wanted to be seen flexing his muscles,and as the hunt for Osama Bin Laden was proving fruitless,he had to turn his attention to somewhere else and Iraq won the choice.
It has been proved since that there were no WMD and since then the whole thing has become a mess,with our and US military and Iraqi citizens getting killed.
The David Kelly affair has shown the lack of integrity of this government.
There are other dictators in this world that needs sorting out:Mugabe in Zimbabwe,that little fellow in North Korea and others - and the dictators of Britain and the USA need confronting from their own people.

[NH]

We shouldn't have been there in the first place, and we definitely shouldn't be there now. Certainly the insurgency have no excuses if coalition forces aren't there.

[flubber]

I think we should go but it's all down to George Bush as to whether we can and when and if we can.