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I just read an amazing op-ed piece in the Wall Street Journal by Joe Lieberman. It says everything that I have been thinking about the Iraqi War, and our presence there. It is a fantastic piece, because it comes from someone who just came home from Iraq, so he knows exactly what is happening there, and it’s also fantastic because it lays out so clearly where we were before, and where we’re going now. If you do nothing else today, go read that article. When you’re done, come back here though - I have some of my own thoughts to share on the subject.

Those thoughts being: A while back, I had someone approach me through the Contact Page on this blog, a person who was a Libertarian who didn’t support Mitt Romney, Republicans, or the war. Not being nearly as eloquent as Joe is in the above piece, I tried to explain in my own clumsy way that we cannot withdraw from Iraq now because if we do, we turn those vast oil fields in Iraq over to terrorists. He took that to mean that I thought we were fighting this war so we could have cheap gas, and he complimented me for at least being willing to admit that.

I replied and clarified my position, namely that oil is a precious commodity and no one believes that the price for it is going to go anywhere but up. If we withdraw from Iraq and allow the terrorists to come in and control that oil, then we basically writing a blank check to Al-Qaeda and telling them, “Here’s your funding for all terrorist activities for the next 25 years. Please, make sure to target America first as a “thanks” to us for giving you this. We’d appreciate it. Have a great day.”

All sarcasm aside, in order for a terrorist operation to succeed, it needs money, people, and plans. If they have the money, then they can buy the people and the plans, but without any funding, they will not be able to carry out their plans, and they won’t be able to recruit any people. We must cut off the funding if we are going to succeed in this war against terror. We do NOT cut off funding by withdrawing our troops and leaving the oil fields behind for the terrorists to control.

America should not control those oil fields. The Iraqi people need to control those oil fields. The most important thing though, is that the terrorists do not control those oil fields. I literally do not care what the price of gas is. You want to know why? I work from home. My husband’s “commute” is less than a mile. We use very little gas. On top of all that, we get all of our gas paid for as a perk of my husband’s job. It’s completely free, so I don’t care what the price is. Why on earth would I would support a plan where Americans die so that we can have cheap gas? I already get free gas. It simply doesn’t make any sense.

So I say to all Democrats and Libertarians who think we should withdraw right away: I believe very strongly that we went into Iraq, we overthrew the Saddam regime, and now it is our duty to help build a country that will not be run by terrorists. We made our bed, now we have to lie in it. Whether you believe that we should have gone in there or not is inconsequential at this point. There are no time machines. We cannot go back and undo that invasion.

Right now, America needs to help Iraq build a republic where the person with the most bombs or guns doesn’t win, but instead the best person for the job. We owe it to ourselves, for stability and freedom in our country, but we also owe it to the Iraqi people. We went in there. We caused Saddam’s regime to fall. We now have to help another government to rise, or we will have failed. Failed not only the Iraqi people, but the future generations of Americans. For the security of our nation, we must stick it out, we must win.

There is no other option.

Hava

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