“We have incurred a moral responsibility in Iraq. It would be an unconscionable act of betrayal, a stain on our character as a great nation, if we were to walk away from the Iraqi people and consign them to the horrendous violence, ethnic cleansing and possibly genocide that would follow a reckless, irresponsible and premature withdrawal.”I think this touches on how I feel about Iraq right now. I can't choose a side in the "stay or go" debate, but I'm quite sure that it's nowhere as clear-cut as either side makes it out to be. McCain's usual win-at-all-costs rhetoric bothers me, but so do people who say that our time is done, and the Iraqis must choose for themselves whether they want war or peace. I would argue that we relieved them of that responsibility when we invaded their nation and systematically dismantled their government. Like it or not, we caused their current situation, and to blame them for not pulling themselves out of it seems two-faced.
Of course, I also don't support keeping 140,000 US soldiers in Iraq for 10,000 years, either. That's the problem: there is no simple answer, and maybe not even a very good complicated answer.
