something to think about...

We are constantly being told that we can't pull out of Iraq. What will the world think if we leave now? How many people will die in the carnage that will follow when we leave?

Both of these questions are legitimate.

Maybe others will think we are cutting and running, but maybe they will just say it's about time. Maybe others are waiting for us to leave so that they can go in and give assistance. I don't know what others think, nor at this point do I care.

I am not sure how many people will die if we pull out now or later. The "innocent" people are dying in the streets right now. Maybe our surge has put a damper on some of the bombings but lets be real, civilians are still being killed. We are only slowing the process down, not stopping it.

I know that there are many people who will start screaming OH WE CAN'T PULL OUT YET THE IRAQIS AREN'T READY FOR US TO LEAVE!!!!!

Maybe if we decide to start exiting their country maybe they will start killing one another, or maybe they will decide that it is time to get their acts together and solve some of their own problems themselves.

Or we can be like the President and his blind followers and say we can be there another 50 years, or McCain and his 100 years.

Lets think about that for a moment. We have been in Iraq for six years now and, as of Jan. 7th, 3911 members of our military have died. That's an average of just under 55 deaths a month. Even if we half that to around 25 a month, and we project it out for 50 years that number becomes 12,000 US military deaths. Of course that is if the insurgents don't pick up their pace during that time.

According to the Military we have around 30,000 wounded soldiers. That averages about 416 per month. Project that out 50 years and that gives us about 249,000 more injured.

I have heard those who support the war say that we have had troops in Germany and Japan since the end of WW II but to this I must respond that both the Germans and Japanese were all German and Japanese. When we defeated them they were both defeated peoples. There was very little fight left to stage insurgent attacks on our troops.

The people in Iraq are Iraqi because that is what we call them. People must remember that some of them are Arab, some are Persian. Still again some are Kurd. Many are still living in tribes. They are Sunni, and they are Shia and they do not get along. They have never gotten along and in all reality they will never get along.

What we have to think about is this. We have lost nearly 4000 men and women to this war. We have had roughly another 30000 men and women injured. We have spent a trillion dollars on this conflict with no end in sight to the cost. While failing to pay for the things that are needed in this country for our people to survive.

We have damaged the reputation of our nation, and the way things are going it will take a long time to rebuild that.

We have to ask ourselves how much more are we going to sacrifice before we decide that it has been enough. Our military has done everything we have asked of them, now it is time to ask them to come home.