International affairs · Politics/Government · Security

What do you want to see next in Iraq?

Eric Ringham Aug 31, 2010
23

President Obama will address the nation tonight and mark the end of the U.S. combat mission in Iraq. Today’s Question: What do you want to see next in Iraq?

  • Gary F

    That they can have a secular government, which allows personal, economic, and religous freedoms to allow prosperity for all.

    A stable society so they can attract back all the business people and academia that has fled because of the Saddam Hussien regime.

    That the extreme factions of Islam can live in a world with personal and economic freedoms and set an example for the rest of the Muslim world.

  • Joe Danko

    Iraq needs to get its national power grid, water and sewage infrastructure restored that the US destroyed in 2003. Recovery efforts in Germany, Japan and Korea were much more effective. I was in Stuttgart, Germany in 1952. War damage was still visible but most national infrastructure was operating.

  • Steve the Cynic

    It doesn’t matter what I want to see, because I probably won’t see it. I want to see Iraqis put aside their differences, work together to make a better society, quit believing lies about each other, practice tolerance, and vote themselves good government. If we can’t even get that right, what makes us think they can?

  • Steve the Cynic

    Another reason we probably won’t see the results we might hope for in Iraq: When we invaded in 2003, we showed the Iraqis that we think violence is an appropriate way to get what you want. The unintended consequence of removing Saddam with military force is that we took the lid off a simmering civil war and legitimized the fighting of it. I want to see Iraq become peaceful and prosperous. There are two chances that will happen any time soon: slim and fat.

  • Philip

    More tribal cooperation and a concerted effort to destroy Al-Qaeda in the Baquba area.

  • This question implies one has business in Iraq. It is another country, after all. It is arrogant to ask. Do Iraqis ask what they want to see next in America? I think not.

    Minding one’s own business is a wise approach. While this position may be construed as an Ostrich head in the sand approach, not many Ostrich’s heads are blown off while under the surface.

    Thank you.

    Michael Shepard

  • Chris

    Lets get out completely. We never paid for it, and we currently can’t afford it. Lets leave the entire region and start figuring out how to live without their oil. Had we spent the same amount on building renewables in this country as we did on these two dumb wars we may not have a need for their resources today.

  • Greg Copeland

    HYPOCRISY TONIGHT!

    Obama will take credit for keeping George Bush’s Time Table for ending ‘combat operations’ on schedule.

    Wow! What an ‘accomplishment’!

    Obama, who won the White House by opposing the Iraq War, promised he’d bring the troops home…yet he’s now leaving 50,000 U.S. Troops in Iraq.

  • Gary F

    Think Obama will say “the surge worked”?

    He said in his campaign that we’d be completely out of Iraq in 16 months. Well, it’s 18 months, and we are not completely out.

    Oh well, he said we’d close down Gitmo and have transparency in health care legislation.

  • jack Goldman

    Iraq should get a plaque, a monument, apologizing for the illegal immoral execution of President Saddam Hussein. It was all to defend US subsidized racist terrorist Israel and control oil. American subsidies for Israel provoked 9/11/01. Israelis get more dead beat fat lazy welfare than all of North America, South America, and Africa combined. Where is the shame and rule of law? Iraq deserves a monumental apology for this illegal war.

    There were no weapons of mass destruction. This was a “faith based” war launched to make Americans “feel better” after provoking the attacks of 9/11/01.

    America was lied into Vietnam and Iraq. There should be a monument to recognize both wars were evil and wrong and will not be repeated. Sadly, there will be another war. America spends over 50% of the global war budget for 6% of the population. How sad.

    America has never paid for one war since the 1846 Mexican American war. The public debt was ZERO in 1846 and now all war debts since are $13 Trillion dollars. These wars have bankrupted us. We have met the enemy and he is us.

  • Sue de Nim

    I want to see America learn the lesson from the Iraq misadventure that we should have learned from Vietnam: that military intervention in another country’s affairs causes more problems than it solves. I’m struck by the irony that some of the same people who are crying for the US government to quit meddling in the lives of ordinary Americans have been supporting that same government’s meddling in Iraq and other foreign countries. Talk about hypocrisy…..

  • mara

    I think we should have understood their culture and the way they live in Iraq as well as other middle eastern countries before jumping in as we did. I have had several people of middle eastern cultures come to my farm to buy eggs, lamb etc. and have learned so much. Why arent news stations interviewing the common everyday person over there? Why arent we learning about them? From what I have heard, we should never ever have meddled in the way we did. We need to strengthen our borders, learn more about other cultures, and look at more constructive ways to communicate with all countries. We are hated for our embarrassing “mistakes” by well informed people in other countries.

  • Glenn

    Draft Republicans, activate them into the army to abserve the work of thier hero!!

  • DMox

    I’d like to see the Iraqi Parliament form a government based on majority. Then, the Prime Minister go on live television & politely ask all American and Coalition forces to leave, effective immediately.

  • Pete Pantzer

    I read a quote once that said, “There is no substitute for intelligence, but silence comes close.”

    I do not personally think that any average citizen (myself included), at least one who does not work for an intelligence agency, can say with certainty that there were no WMD’s in Iraq. I am not saying there were. I’m saying I don’t presume to know. And the fact they haven’t been found does not mean there weren’t at some point weapons that may have been buried or smuggled into Syria.

    The US decision to enter Iraq may or may not have been wise. But (Mr. Goldman) are we to feel sorry for the “Butcher of Baghdad”? And how dare you throw around such perjurative remarks (illegal/faith-based/evil/racist/terrorist) to describe the efforts of our military and of our ally Israel?

    If anyone hasn’t read Joel Rosenberg’s highly researched and fascinating book “Epicenter,” I recommend it strongly.

    I wish a future of independence, freedom, peace and prosperity for the people of Iraq – and for the people of Afghanistan. I hope that a killer such as Saddam, and beasts such as the Taliban, will never terrorize these people again. Alas, this is probably too much to hope as well.

  • Steve the Cynic

    Likewise, Pete, the fact that we’ve never seen the lost continent of Atlantis doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Maybe that’s where Elvis goes in between being sighted at truck stops.

  • Pete Pantzer

    Steve the Cynic:

    I responded to your reply to me on the August 3 question of the day just a few days ago, and I don’t think you’re checking back that far anymore. Rather than simply repeat what I said there, I’ll just refer you to it.

    I do not know you at all, and I certainly cannot judge your motivations, or those of anyone else who responds in these pages. But mutual respect has got to be a prerequisite for any kind of meaningful dialogue. Atlantis? Elvis? What are you talking about?

    MPR seems to be largely a forum for those on the left to post their views. There are a few of us who take the risk of posting opposing views in a setting where we won’t find much agreement.

    It’s late, and I just got back from the marathon 13-inning Twins game and am off to bed.

  • Steve the Cynic

    Pete, I replied to your reply on the August 3 topic. Regarding this one, you are correct in your assertion that the mere fact that no WMDs were found in Iraq does not prove there weren’t any. The fact that there is no credible evidence that Saddam quickly smuggled them into Syria and hid them there doesn’t prove that he didn’t. Likewise, I have no solid evidence of my suspicion that those arguments are being asserted by folks who are unwilling to admit that the Iraq invasion was the worst foreign policy disaster in American history, but that doesn’t prove they’re not.

  • DNA

    What do I want to see next in Iraq?

    Widespread cultivation of hemp for every good purpose. Hemp (Cannabis sativa) is the source of one of the longest, strongest natural fibers on earth, two to three times stronger than cotton.

    It can be grown in just about any climate and soil condition, without the need for chemical pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and fertilizers. It is excellent for reclaiming otherwise-unusable land. It has even been shown to clean up toxic soil.

    Hemp has strong mold, bacteria, heat, and U.V. resistant qualities.

    Hemp is the world’s most versatile fiber. Anything that can be made from wood, cotton, or oil can be made from hemp. Important uses include:

    Textiles

    Rope & twine

    Construction materials

    Industrial composites

    Paper

    Paints & sealants

    Plastics & polymers

    Fuel & lubricants

    Body care products

    Food

    Medicine

    Recreation

    Spiritual Sacrament

    Hemp is the oldest cultivated fiber plant in the world, as old as agriculture itself.

    Of course we need to wise up and stop giving in to corrupt business and government that unconstitutionally made hemp illegal and renamed it marijuana (as a racist ploy to confuse the public). I repeat: the criminalization of Hemp was Unconstitutional!

    Make the most of the Indian hemp seed, and sow it everywhere! – George Washington, U.S. President

    Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country.

    – Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President

    Some of my finest hours have been spent on the back of my veranda, smoking hemp and observing as far as the eye can see. – Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President

    We shall, by and by, want a world of hemp more for our own consumption. – John Adams, U.S. President

    Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields?

    – Henry Ford

    Two of my favorite things are sitting on my front porch smoking a pipe of sweet hemp, and playing my Hohner harmonica. – Abraham Lincoln, U.S. President, from a letter written by Lincoln during his presidency to the head of the Hohner Harmonica Company in Germany

    Prohibition… goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes… A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded. – Abraham Lincoln

    The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the

    same level of thinking with which we created them. – Einstein

    Be very careful about locating good or God, right or wrong, legal or illegal, at your favorite level of consciousness. – Timothy Leary

    All life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.This is the interrelated structure of reality.

    -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

    When you are torn between two mutually exclusive options, you are missing a third one in which the two can be assimilated making 3=1. -Swami Veda Bharati

    The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes. – Marcel Proust

    Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could. – William F. Buckley, Jr

    Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself; and where they are, they should be changed. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marihuana in private for personal use… Therefore, I support legislation amending Federal law to eliminate all Federal criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce of marihuana. – Jimmy Carter, U.S. President

    The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world. – Carl Sagan

    The war on drugs has been an utter failure. We need to rethink and decriminalize our nation’s marijuana laws. – Barack Obama, U.S. President

    There are just laws and there are unjust laws. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

    Iraq, USA and the World will benefit.

  • DNA

    What do I want to see next in Iraq?

    Widespread cultivation of hemp for every good purpose. Hemp (Cannabis sativa) is the source of one of the longest, strongest natural fibers on earth, two to three times stronger than cotton.

    It can be grown in just about any climate and soil condition, without the need for chemical pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and fertilizers. It is excellent for reclaiming otherwise-unusable land. It has even been shown to clean up toxic soil.

    Hemp has strong mold, bacteria, heat, and U.V. resistant qualities.

    Hemp is the world’s most versatile fiber. Anything that can be made from wood, cotton, or oil can be made from hemp. Important uses include:

    Textiles

    Rope & twine

    Construction materials

    Industrial composites

    Paper

    Paints & sealants

    Plastics & polymers

    Fuel & lubricants

    Body care products

    Food

    Medicine

    Recreation

    Spiritual Sacrament

    Hemp is the oldest cultivated fiber plant in the world, as old as agriculture itself.

    Of course we need to wise up and stop giving in to corrupt business and government that unconstitutionally made hemp illegal and renamed it marijuana (as a racist ploy to confuse the public). I repeat: the criminalization of Hemp was Unconstitutional!

    Make the most of the Indian hemp seed, and sow it everywhere! – George Washington, U.S. President

    Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country.

    – Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President

    Some of my finest hours have been spent on the back of my veranda, smoking hemp and observing as far as the eye can see. – Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President

    We shall, by and by, want a world of hemp more for our own consumption. – John Adams, U.S. President

    Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields?

    – Henry Ford

    Two of my favorite things are sitting on my front porch smoking a pipe of sweet hemp, and playing my Hohner harmonica. – Abraham Lincoln, U.S. President, from a letter written by Lincoln during his presidency to the head of the Hohner Harmonica Company in Germany

    Prohibition… goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes… A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded. – Abraham Lincoln

    The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the

    same level of thinking with which we created them. – Einstein

    Be very careful about locating good or God, right or wrong, legal or illegal, at your favorite level of consciousness. – Timothy Leary

    All life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.This is the interrelated structure of reality.

    -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

    When you are torn between two mutually exclusive options, you are missing a third one in which the two can be assimilated making 3=1. -Swami Veda Bharati

    The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes. – Marcel Proust

    Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could. – William F. Buckley, Jr

    Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself; and where they are, they should be changed. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marihuana in private for personal use… Therefore, I support legislation amending Federal law to eliminate all Federal criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce of marihuana. – Jimmy Carter, U.S. President

    The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world. – Carl Sagan

    The war on drugs has been an utter failure. We need to rethink and decriminalize our nation’s marijuana laws. – Barack Obama, U.S. President

    There are just laws and there are unjust laws. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

    Iraq, USA and the World will benefit.

  • DNA

    What do I want to see next in Iraq?

    Widespread cultivation of hemp for every good purpose. Hemp (Cannabis sativa) is the source of one of the longest, strongest natural fibers on earth, two to three times stronger than cotton.

    It can be grown in just about any climate and soil condition, without the need for chemical pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and fertilizers. It is excellent for reclaiming otherwise-unusable land. It has even been shown to clean up toxic soil.

    Hemp has strong mold, bacteria, heat, and U.V. resistant qualities.

    Hemp is the world’s most versatile fiber. Anything that can be made from wood, cotton, or oil can be made from hemp. Important uses include:

    Textiles

    Rope & twine

    Construction materials

    Industrial composites

    Paper

    Paints & sealants

    Plastics & polymers

    Fuel & lubricants

    Body care products

    Food

    Medicine

    Recreation

    Spiritual Sacrament

    Hemp is the oldest cultivated fiber plant in the world, as old as agriculture itself.

    Of course we need to wise up and stop giving in to corrupt business and government that unconstitutionally made hemp illegal and renamed it marijuana (as a racist ploy to confuse the public). I repeat: the criminalization of Hemp was Unconstitutional!

    Make the most of the Indian hemp seed, and sow it everywhere! – George Washington, U.S. President

    Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country.

    – Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President

    Some of my finest hours have been spent on the back of my veranda, smoking hemp and observing as far as the eye can see. – Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President

    We shall, by and by, want a world of hemp more for our own consumption. – John Adams, U.S. President

    Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields?

    – Henry Ford

    Two of my favorite things are sitting on my front porch smoking a pipe of sweet hemp, and playing my Hohner harmonica. – Abraham Lincoln, U.S. President, from a letter written by Lincoln during his presidency to the head of the Hohner Harmonica Company in Germany

    Prohibition… goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes… A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded. – Abraham Lincoln

    The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the

    same level of thinking with which we created them. – Einstein

    Be very careful about locating good or God, right or wrong, legal or illegal, at your favorite level of consciousness. – Timothy Leary

    All life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.This is the interrelated structure of reality.

    -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

    When you are torn between two mutually exclusive options, you are missing a third one in which the two can be assimilated making 3=1. -Swami Veda Bharati

    The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes. – Marcel Proust

    Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could. – William F. Buckley, Jr

    Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself; and where they are, they should be changed. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marihuana in private for personal use… Therefore, I support legislation amending Federal law to eliminate all Federal criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce of marihuana. – Jimmy Carter, U.S. President

    The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world. – Carl Sagan

    The war on drugs has been an utter failure. We need to rethink and decriminalize our nation’s marijuana laws. – Barack Obama, U.S. President

    There are just laws and there are unjust laws. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

    Iraq, USA and the World will benefit.

  • DNA

    What do I want to see next in Iraq?

    Widespread cultivation of hemp for every good purpose. Hemp (Cannabis sativa) is the source of one of the longest, strongest natural fibers on earth, two to three times stronger than cotton.

    It can be grown in just about any climate and soil condition, without the need for chemical pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, and fertilizers. It is excellent for reclaiming otherwise-unusable land. It has even been shown to clean up toxic soil.

    Hemp has strong mold, bacteria, heat, and U.V. resistant qualities.

    Hemp is the world’s most versatile fiber. Anything that can be made from wood, cotton, or oil can be made from hemp. Important uses include:

    Textiles

    Rope & twine

    Construction materials

    Industrial composites

    Paper

    Paints & sealants

    Plastics & polymers

    Fuel & lubricants

    Body care products

    Food

    Medicine

    Recreation

    Spiritual Sacrament

    Hemp is the oldest cultivated fiber plant in the world, as old as agriculture itself.

    Of course we need to wise up and stop giving in to corrupt business and government that unconstitutionally made hemp illegal and renamed it marijuana (as a racist ploy to confuse the public). I repeat: the criminalization of Hemp was Unconstitutional!

    Make the most of the Indian hemp seed, and sow it everywhere! – George Washington, U.S. President

    Hemp is of first necessity to the wealth & protection of the country.

    – Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President

    Some of my finest hours have been spent on the back of my veranda, smoking hemp and observing as far as the eye can see. – Thomas Jefferson, U.S. President

    We shall, by and by, want a world of hemp more for our own consumption. – John Adams, U.S. President

    Why use up the forests which were centuries in the making and the mines which required ages to lay down, if we can get the equivalent of forest and mineral products in the annual growth of the hemp fields?

    – Henry Ford

    Two of my favorite things are sitting on my front porch smoking a pipe of sweet hemp, and playing my Hohner harmonica. – Abraham Lincoln, U.S. President, from a letter written by Lincoln during his presidency to the head of the Hohner Harmonica Company in Germany

    Prohibition… goes beyond the bounds of reason in that it attempts to control a man’s appetite by legislation and makes a crime out of things that are not crimes… A prohibition law strikes a blow at the very principles upon which our government was founded. – Abraham Lincoln

    The significant problems we have cannot be solved at the

    same level of thinking with which we created them. – Einstein

    Be very careful about locating good or God, right or wrong, legal or illegal, at your favorite level of consciousness. – Timothy Leary

    All life is interrelated. We are all caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied into a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.This is the interrelated structure of reality.

    -Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

    When you are torn between two mutually exclusive options, you are missing a third one in which the two can be assimilated making 3=1. -Swami Veda Bharati

    The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes. – Marcel Proust

    Even if one takes every reefer madness allegation of the prohibitionists at face value, marijuana prohibition has done far more harm to far more people than marijuana ever could. – William F. Buckley, Jr

    Penalties against possession of a drug should not be more damaging to an individual than the use of the drug itself; and where they are, they should be changed. Nowhere is this more clear than in the laws against possession of marihuana in private for personal use… Therefore, I support legislation amending Federal law to eliminate all Federal criminal penalties for the possession of up to one ounce of marihuana. – Jimmy Carter, U.S. President

    The illegality of cannabis is outrageous, an impediment to full utilization of a drug which helps produce the serenity and insight, sensitivity and fellowship so desperately needed in this increasingly mad and dangerous world. – Carl Sagan

    The war on drugs has been an utter failure. We need to rethink and decriminalize our nation’s marijuana laws. – Barack Obama, U.S. President

    There are just laws and there are unjust laws. I would be the first to advocate obeying just laws. One has not only a legal but moral responsibility to obey just laws. Conversely one has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws. – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

    Iraq, USA and the World will benefit.

  • DNA

    The repetition was unintentional :}