Why We Can't Leave Iraq

By Anonymous Student

Due to the controversial view of this article, the student chose to remain anonymous. It is not popular to be in favor of this war, but this student wants a dissenting voice to be heard.

When soldiers liberated the concentration camps, the line spoken most often was, "Never Forget." Never forget what happens when an evil dictator brutally massacres an entire ethnic group in the name of "cleansing." Yet, it was not long before we forgot. We forgot in Rwanda. We nearly forgot in Bosnia. We are forgetting right now in Sudan. Now, people are suggesting that we leave Iraq and simply "forget" about them. We need to stay in Iraq because it is our duty to humanity to help save lives.

Saddam Hussein massacred his own civilians. Deliberately targetting the Khurds, his soldiers went from village to vilage killing nearly half a million "insurgents," who did nothing more than voice their desire for democracy. Nobody stopped him. The Khurdish people cried for help, asking only that the larger nations would have mercy on them and remove Saddam Hussein from power.

Now, people want the United States to leave. The same people complaining about us doing nothing to stop the fightiing in Dharfor are the people who protest our involvement in Iraq. The truth is that we removed Saddam from power and the Khurds can now live without fear of an awful dictator. What will happen, then, if we leave? What will happen if a new extremist government steps in?

People claim that we need to leave before more soldiers die. Nobody wants soldiers to die, but we have to remember that they signed up for military service. No soldier was drafted. In addition, many soldiers continue to suppport the war, because they don't want to feel like they fought for nothing. Finally, we need to keep in in perspective. We have lost fewer soldiers in this entire war than we lost in one day during World War II. These brave men and women died for a noble cause: freedom - whether that freedom is for our citizens or for the Khurds who were slaughtered by Saddam.

It may be true that we are losing lives, but in the end, it will save lives if we stay. If we leave, the Khurds will face further opposition by a new, more brutal dictator. The vast amounts of oil money will be funneled into terrorist groups such as Al-Queda. The United States will send the message to extremists that democracy does not matter and that we are too weak to fight terrorism. Who knows what type of death will happen after the next terrorist attack. It seems that the only logical choice, even if it is hard, is to continue fighting until there is enough safety for democracy to thrive.