Is It Time to Withdraw From Iraq?
Critics and Supporters of Iraq War Weigh In
It's been nearly two years since President Bush declared the end of "major combat operations" in Iraq, but the intervening months have been marked by a mounting insurgency and deepening chaos that has cost the United States dearly in blood and wealth.
As Iraqis cast their ballots today in their homeland's first independent election in nearly 50 years, many Americans may be wondering if it's even necessary for American troops to remain in the Persian Gulf country.
On Thursday, "Nightline's" Ted Koppel held a town meeting in the St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington D.C., to ask the question, "Iraq: Why Stay?"
Cindy Sheehan, a Californian whose son, Spc. Casey Sheehan, was killed in Iraq, said her son was sent to Iraq "based on false reasons."
"We need to bring our children home before it's too late for them and for their families. It's too late for my son and my family," Sheehan said.
However, Stacy Sammis, whose husband, Benjamin, a Marine captain, was killed in Iraq, has told the many people who ask her that she is not angry, because her husband believed in what he was fighting for. But, she added, "I will be infuriated if we do not finish the work of the fallen."
The Value of a Timetable
Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., who recently returned from a weeklong trip to Iraq, Jordan and Afghanistan, said he would pull out the majority by the end of 2005.
"By the summer of '06, I would have a small group working in the background," said Meehan, a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
He added that Iraqis were the only ones that would be able to properly maintain security and suppress the insurgency -- "because it's being fueled by the fact that 70 (percent) to 80 percent of the Iraqi people want us out."
Sen. George Allen, R-Va., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said while he also wanted to see the troops home as soon as possible, he felt withdrawing would send the insurgents a message that the United States does not have the stomach to complete its goals.
Moreover, "a lame-duck army can be shot at with impunity, knowing we'll be leaving," he said.
But Allen was also unwilling to say he was advocating staying for as long as it takes.
"The answer is to train Iraqis to [develop a society] with a constitution, with a legitimate government," he said.
Considering Ahmed Chalabi
Richard Perle -- a strong advocate of the Iraq war and an adviser to the Pentagon while on the Defense Policy Board from 1987 until last year -- said it was a mistake not to hand over power "more or less immediately" after the war.
