Op-Ed: When Can We Leave Iraq?

Much of the current election has focused on the war in Iraq and how quickly the United States can get the troops back home. But is that possible? If the troops leave will they be considered winners?

In war there generally is a side that can claim victory. In modern wars though at times there are no clear victors. In wars that the process is to clear an ‘evil’ regime out of office is the victor the one that does that or the people left to pick up the pieces?

In Iraq can a victory be claimed at any point? Yes Hussein is gone and buried but peace is far from the scope of the everyday life of those left in that nation. The United States troops have seen multiple causalities.

When the war started close on the heels of the 9/11 tragedy most Americans wanted to rid the world of the evil that was Saddam Hussein and his weapons of mass destruction. Those weapons though were a smoke screen. Asked five years later and the average American is mixed on whether or not the troops should be in the Middle East fighting a battle that’s perhaps not ours to fight.

Only 28 percent of Americans know the actual body count of the troops. It may just be a sign of the times that the American people are starting to block out Iraq from their general mindset.

“It’s just become a mess, and I don’t think there’s an easy end to it, so we’re going to end up in a quagmire,” says Ben Lem, a Boston-area cafe owner.

While citizen support of the war was high in the beginning now the bottom line is a nation that may just well be questioning if the US invasion was the right choice. As the United States image becomes more and more tarnished overseas is there any way that the US can come out of Iraq with their heads held high and looking like the victors?

We are in a period of rising isolationism, just as we saw a bump in isolationism after the war in Vietnam in the ’70s,” said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center, at a Center for Strategic and International Studies seminar in Washington on March 12.

With the war now in the fifth war it is clear that not only has Iraq changed during that time but also the United States along with it.

I sometimes wish we could bring [the troops] home and put them on our border to solve our own problems here,” Sharon Howden of Mesa, Ariz. says. “But then sometimes it’s necessary to help other people.”

The question now that many ask is can the troops leave an unstable region or should they stay until stability has been obtained.

The US has spent billions of dollars bombing Iraq and then attempting to repair it, adds Brett Smith, a Mesa jewelry retailer. Yet major US cities are themselves wrecks, he says, and homelessness is chronic.

“I just think America tries to govern the world, and it seems like other countries don’t do that…. We’ve just got our noses in too many other people’s business,” Mr. Smith says.

That sentiment is heard often in the United States. The candidates have been responding to thoughts like that as they pound the election trail. Promises are being made right and left as to when the troops will be coming home. The collective answer appears to be ‘not soon’ if you read between the lines.

John McCain, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton all have a shot at sitting in the Oval Office. They all will face the crisis in Iraq. The three each have plans to bring the troops home at some point but each of those plans will take time.

Obama wants the troops gone by the end of 2009. His plan is to remove one or two combat brigades a month. Soldiers would remain a presence though by protecting the American embassy, to fight al-Qaeda if need be and he wants to “reserve” the right” to re-enter Iraq if a genocide were to begin.

Clinton’s plan is much of the same. One or two brigades home per month but leave behind “small, elite strike forces” to fight off the terrorists. Her plan leaves a presence of troops behind for a longer period of time than Obama’s.

Both of the Democrats though promise a diplomatic push to have the United Nations and Middle Eastern neighbours of Iraq to help with the withdraw of troops. Considering that European allies have not been willing in the past to help on this may make their plans a failure before they even begin.

McCain visited Iraq just this week to show his interest in foreign affairs. If he is elected don’t plan on welcoming masses of the troops home. He has said that America may have bases in Iraq for 100 years while it finishes the job up.

How may more soldiers will have their lives blood stain the soil before a decision has been made? When the next president takes office it will be approaching the sixth year mark. That’s a lot of blood stains in the wait of an answer.

Is there a victor in this war or will the blood on the streets cry out of deaths taken in vain?

Native Americans And The Fence

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East of San Diego many Native American families have bypassed checkpoints and hopped over a cattle fence to visit with their families for centuries. Now the proposed Mexican/United States fence poses a problem with that closeness.

Border police and steel barriers along the line in San Diego have cut down on the ease of Native Americans whose families reside on one or the other side of the fence since the 1990s. The Kumeyaay tribe had to take decisive action if they were to be able to remain close and stay together.

“The Kumeyaay were like a broken vase, and we needed the pieces back together again,” said Louie Guassac, executive director of the Kumeyaay Border Task Force.

In 1998 the tribe formed the Kumeyaay Border Task Force knowing that without some sort of action on their part would change the closeness of the kin.

“We thought, let’s get these people over here who can help rebuild our nation as a whole nation, instead of having pieces on both sides of the border,” said Guassac.

The first step was to take a census of the members who dot along Baja California. Many of the tribe live in small remote villages or on large communal farms called ejidos. The process in Mexico was carried out under eyes of Mexican authorities. In the end 1,300 tribal members had Mexican passports to get their the mobility to travel back and forth.

The next step was to negotiate with the U.S. immigration authorities in San Diego. The task force were able to obtain U.S. laser visas for the Mexican passport holders which allow members to cross to and from California legally though the Tecate port of entry and stay for periods up to six months.

We wanted to get the artisans and the knowledge keepers to go back forth, and that’s how we got this ball rolling,” said Guassac.

There earlier actions have made possible the tribe to remain close. The members easily and frequently visit either side of the border. Knowledge is being shared between communities.

“We don’t know our relatives there as well as we should … I think it helped reconnecting with our people down there” in Mexico, said Paul Cuero Jr., the chairman of the Campo Band of the Kumeyaay, east of San Diego.

Northern tribal members have taught their Mexican family the traditional gambling game of peon played with dice like pieces of white and black bone. They have also passed on bird songs that celebrate the natural world. Many of those songs had been lost to those on the Mexican border.

The southern tribal members have taught their northern kin traditional handicrafts of pottery and basket weaving. They have also shared agricultural techniques.

The Kumeyaay language had been losing ground in the United States but with the help of their Mexican kin who generally speak fluent Kumeyaay its being re-learnt. In Mexico the native tongue is spoken in the home with the children learning Spanish only when they start in school.

The next step for the tribe is to obtain work visas for those in Mexico to help at the tribe’s four casinos in California.

“What we have shown is that people who live along the borders are not the enemies of the government, but can be their valued allies,” said Guassac. “They need to understand that.”

Father And Children From Columbus, Georgia Found Dead

Agents searching for Eddie Harrington and his three children found their remains at a Columbus park Wednesday afternoon. Harrington was the focus of a manhunt after an Amber Alert was reported on the children.

There is no word on how the four died. The GBI crime lab has had the bodies sent there for autopsies.

Police had thought that Harrington took the children to Tennessee last week when his car was spotted outside of Jackson early Thursday morning. The police have been searching for the family for the past three weeks.

Wall Street Sees Another Decline On Wednesday After Tuesday’s Rally

Wednesday morning started off on a strong note on the New York Stock Exchanges floors only to decline as investors cashed in gains a day after the market’s huge rally on Tuesday.

The government plans to free up billions of greenbacks at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac seemed to ease some fears on the market. It wasn’t enough though as investors sold off stocks that had been huge advancements. The past weeks evaporation of those advancements was enough to drive brokers into a selling frenzy Wednesday.

Tuesday rose the Dow rise 420 points. It’s the second 400+ rise in six sessions.

Nobody wants to make the first move. There is liquidity on the sidelines. It doesn’t really know what to do right now,” he said, adding that investors are trying to determine whether moves by the Fed and other regulators to stimulate the economy and stabilize the markets will take hold.

“Clearly there is fear. I would say the needle is pointing more toward fear than greed right now,” George Shipp, chief investment officer at Scott & Stringfellow said.

By midday Wednesday the Dow fell 192.7 back to 12,199.96.

Light sweet crude fell from $5.52 to $103.90 per barrel on the York Mercantile Exchange.

Fannie rose to $31.02 and Freddie is up to $30.05.

According to Bruce McCain of Key Private Bank in Cleveland recent trading is encouraging.

“when stocks didn’t plummet in the face of bad news and rallied on good news “

McCain says that it’s a possible sign that the market is closer to getting back on solid footing.

Charred Child’s Parents Charged With Murder

After killing their 2 year old daughter Joseph Miller, III, 28 and Nickello L. Reid, 23 grilled the child’s remains. The charred remains were found by police in Detroit in the basement ceiling of the couple’s home.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy have charged the parents of felony murder which carried a maximum penalty of life in prison without parole for the crime.

On November 22 Detroit police were called to the home where they discovered the child’s charred body in a plastic bag hidden away in the ceiling. The cause of death was inconclusive according to the Wayne County Medical Examiner. It was said though that the child was suffering from disease, abuse and malnutrition.

In addition to the felony murder charges Joseph Miller, III and Nickello Reid also face involuntary manslaughter, first degree child abuse, mutilation of a dead body and welfare fraud charges.

Reid also has an additional welfare fraud charge and two counts of failure to inform charge.

Reid continued to collect welfare monies from the State of Michigan after she and Miller allegedly murdered the child.

Doretha Lippett, 51 of Detroit, the child’s grandmother has been charged with two counts of welfare fraud in her role of helping her daughter.

“It is very difficult to think of an innocent child suffering so profoundly during his two years on earth,” said Worthy.