Collegiate Times

Which brings us back to our opening question. Why are we in Iraq? There is no inherent virtue in a sentiment simply because it is expressed by a majority of people, but in an ostensibly democratic country one has to wonder why our leaders and the media have so little concern for what the American people think. If the foundation that our government rests upon has lost its appetite for this war, by what right can President Bush claim to pursue it?

Perhaps a better question to consider is in what way the American populace and/or government can best aid the Iraqi people. It is my contention that they are not best served by a contingent of 160,000 people with guns.

It is now believed that more than four million Iraqi's are either external or internal refugees. They flee Iraq by the tens of thousands into Syria, Jordan, Iran, Lebanon and other neighboring countries. And yet the U.S. has made no effort to welcome these thousands to our own shores, nor have we come to the aid of the overburdened neighbors who have been forced to accommodate hundreds of thousands of refugees in need of shelter, medical care, work and education.

Within Iraq families flee en masse and find themselves in similar situations, but the U.S. effort has not provided for them. Nor has it prevented a conflict that over the past few years led to anywhere between 70,000 and a million fatalities.

The concern that massacres will follow our departure is not to be taken lightly. Unfortunately, it rests on the premise that our troops are capable of preventing violence on a large scale. As we have seen, they are not. A 160,000 contingent is not capable of preventing violence across a country the size of Iraq, and we can testify to the fact by the deaths that have occurred and continue to occur during our watch. The idea that we would be abdicating our responsibilities by letting the Iraqi's die is flawed because it presupposes we have the power to do so, whereas the past four year experience has taught us that we do not.

Ultimately, an independent and functional political system in Iraq is unlikely to form as long as it has the crutch and impediment of the U.S. occupying forces. The most effective way to help the desperate Iraqi people is to withdraw our troops and turn our effort to a massive influx of humanitarian relief. The Iraqi people need it more than they need guns and tanks. And the resources we can provide in this manner will be immeasurably cheaper than what we can ever provide through the deployment of a high-tech military.

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