Making a Choice

Since 2003 the United States has commited forces to Iraq to fight the war on terror. The American people seem to be getting restless at this length. Both presidental candidates have their own solutions. But which one is the way to go? Obama has an 16 month plan in which all combat brigades would be removed from Iraq. Also a residual force would be left in Iraq to act quickly on conflicts and to track down potential terrorists. John McCain has said that forces can be taken out once it is clear that it won't jeopardize all that the troops have fought for already. He wants to wait until Iraqi police and military can assume more responsibilities. Both candidates have been switching positions on the war. Obama has made more switches voting to fund and then not to later on. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26689720/

I think that right now John McCain is making the right choice. If we pull out too quickly, Iran might gain a foothold and influence terrorism in Iraq. This might lead us to have to go back there anyways, and under more challenging conditions. Iraq's military needs to be well trained and well equiped before we pull out. We can't completely rely on them right now, and 16 months isn't nearly long enough to build a dependable military. We have to be timely on when we leave, and in my opinion 16 months isn't going to be long enough. I don't think that a date can be set by either candidate right now. I also feel that Obama doesn't have it all figured out in his head yet. He talks of leaving residual forces in Iraq but he doesn't have a set amount, it could be 150,000 troops for all we, or he knows. He also has switched opinions on troop withdrawl. In June 22, 2006 he voted against withdrawing troops, but he voted to cut off money to force withdrawl. This doesn't make sense to me because if he wanted the troops out he should vote for them to be directly withdrawn, instead of dangering their lives by giving them less money to obtain military equipment. I don't think that either candidate has the perfect answer, but I don't think there is one at this point.