• 🇳🇿 🇲🇲 🇯🇵 🇨🇳 🇦🇺 🇦🇶 🇮🇳
    Australian & Asian
    Drug Discussion

    Welcome Guest!
    Posting Rules Bluelight Rules
  • AADD Moderators: swilow | Vagabond696

Should our troops be brought home?

I think we need to stay there.. it's the best chance of having stability in that country atm for mine. Stability is what they need.

Pulling out now will be percieved as a) weakness b) proof that terrorism works and only serve to encourage more of the behaviour.

I think a getout plan does need to be drafted though.
 
Fucking hell, look at the events of the past 48hrs or so. What a bloody mess! We should never have gone in, absolutely no way! The stupid Americans started this shitfight, now they are going to have to see it through. Sure he was an evil dictator but the difference is this evil dictator had OIL oh and "WMD". pfft yeah right.

Hey! I know this is old but has everyone seen this, type "weapons of mass destruction" into google and hit the "I'm feeling lucky" search.
 
Last edited:
The US cannot pull out of Iraq, because in Iraq unlike Vietnam they have essentially created the conflict. Also, remember that the US were in Vietnam for like a decade before troops were eventually pulled out. Iraq is barely a year old.

Unlike in Vietnam which saw a stable albeit communist government assume control, if the US were to leave Iraq they would create a total power vacuum where hardline Islamic elements, former Baathists, Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds and Turkomen to the north would be all vying for control.

In fact the Kurds would probably unilaterally declare their own independent homeland with the oil-rich Kirkuk as its capital.. This would make Turkey very very edgey as it would probably be seen as encouraging Turkey's own large population of Kurds to declare similar autonomy and you might even see Turkey invading northern iraq to prevent that happening. Meanwhile the rest of the country would be in an utter shambles as disparate forces carve up their own fifedoms ruled by various tribal, religious and ethnic warlords. This would then resemble exactly what the U.S does not want... a failed state where there is no rule of law. The *perfect* breeding ground for terrorism.

And that is the one thing that the US knows is worse than 100 Saddam Hussein's, and it is the reason they will not leave Iraq.
 
firstly: I dont understand why they there in the first place.

secondly: they havent found the supposed weapons of mass detruction.

thirdly: bring them home as after June (or which ever month it was) they have no reason to be there (forget which sanction it is they have to satisfy til then).
 
I was quite thouroughly against this war for numerous reasons, didn't think it was a good idea from any perspective... Not in direct national interest, compex ethic factional tensions, etc, etc.
However, now the damage is done and we have gone in, there is no escaping the fact that in doing so we have assumed both a moral and legal responsibility to carry out reconstruction and re-institute a stable civil society. To do otherwise would only be (rightly) inviting the claims of western hypocracy that get thrown around in similar circumstances. You cannot just bomb away infrustructure, topple governments and cause civil chaos without being prepared to sort it out afterward. We have a humanitarian obligation to do our bit in Iraq, and while it sucks and we should be angry that it has to come under these circumstances, there it is.

As a population, I just hope we can learn from this mistake. Keep it in mind the next time the public discourse switches to war... It's messy, and yes, you DO need to clean up afterward, regardless of whose fault it was.

The USA knows this. Why shoudl our military involvement have anything to do with the price of our Imports and Exports? Can anybody comfirm or deny that in the World Trade Summits that Military involvement is a key factor in decidedin the rates and relationships on imports/exports and other financial issues?

I can deny. WTO negotiations have nothing to do with anything of the such. They are multilateral negotiations, however, and Australia and many other developing countries (known as the 'Cairns group' in negotiations) are finding it difficult to progress in attempting to abolish agricultural subsidies fleshed out in the WTO Doha round. The EU is immovable on the issue, and since the US is in direct competition with them they refuse to budge on removing their steel/agricultural tarrifs as well. The 'cairns group' delegate countires are caught in the middle, their small economic stature meaning they can play no part in the US/EU trade war essentially meaning they get fucked each way. Where supporting the US comes into theoretical play with helping aust's national interest is with negotiating a bipartisan free trade agreement with the US, bypassing the WTO impasse and securing free access to US markets.
 
Last edited:
Withdraw troops when the going gets tough, what do you think we have troops there for? why do we even have troops? have a think about it before you post uneducated trash. The situation is not ideal, but withdrawing now would just result in a cival war, with the party with most military power taking control. Without the ability to vote in a civilised fashion IRAQ is doomed back to the days of Sadam. Those that think our troops should be withdrawn are mostly on the bandwagon stick as mark latham proved by using it as an election tactic.
 
hardjunglist said:
Withdraw troops when the going gets tough, what do you think we have troops there for? ...

Those that think our troops should be withdrawn are mostly on the bandwagon stick as mark latham proved by using it as an election tactic.
Click to expand...

question ones answer: our troops had no reason being there in the first place. America was just lookin for something to cure its boredom and draw attention to itself...once again... "OUR TROOPS" have done more than enough to help clean up by providing much needed aide and tryin to restore some civil rest. Iraquis arnt revolting against "US" they r turning against America (IMO) bring em home before we get into the corner we cant get out of.

question number two answer:Just cause Latham has offered what the magority of the Australian Public want doesnt make it a band wagon to support him. it doesnt give him any leaverage into the election either. John Howard could of pulled our troops out ages ago if he realyl could of been bothered...but unfortunantly (IMO) hes turned into another Bush (without sounding to nasty) hes not concerend for the good of the people now. just whats good for import and export business :\

i was split in the desicion but im 100% for pulling em home now. we have no place being there now. i rekon if America leaves and someone else sets up the country then it would run alot faster and smoother. why cover up the un-neccessary damage that was done under false pretences to begin with.

we shouldnt have to clean up pig shit when we werent the ones who caused it. america caused the stuff up...they should fix it.

*shrugs*
 
we shouldnt have to clean up pig shit when we werent the ones who caused it. america caused the stuff up...they should fix it.

The buck passing and 'blame America' attitude unfortunately doesn't solve the problem. In addition, we were in on this war from day one. We played our part in causing it.
 
^^ So were Spain.. The Aznar Government were early proponents of the war and yet now the new Socialist government intends to pull all Spanish troops from the conflict.

I think this is a fairly reasonable thing to do given that over 90% of the Spanish population was opposed to entering the Iraq conflict in the first place. It's time that Governments became more representative of their people.

This was America's war propagated by a lie told by a stupid man who had old personal scores to settle. Representations in Iraq by foreign forces other than U.S or British are to my mind mostly symbolic in gesture, and the main reason they are there is to make the U.S occupation seem as though it were multilateral. Call me a cynic but I reckon their contribution to the stabilisation of Iraq comes a somewhat distant second.
 
The buck passing and 'blame America' attitude unfortunately doesn't solve the problem. In addition, we were in on this war from day one. We played our part in causing it.
Click to expand...

yes we were put in this war from day one. im not saying we werent...but if JHoward had of listened to his country and the people hes suppose to represent he would of known that we didnt want to take part in something that wasnt our place to be in to begin with. he jumped in horns and all without looking into the fine details...

eg: the proof there was ANY W.O.M.D.

*shrugs*

This was America's war propagated by a lie told by a stupid man who had old personal scores to settle. Representations in Iraq by foreign forces other than U.S or British are to my mind mostly symbolic in gesture, and the main reason they are there is to make the U.S occupation seem as though it were multilateral. Call me a cynic but I reckon their contribution to the stabilisation of Iraq comes a somewhat distant second.
Click to expand...

thats a nice point macksta. u look at things in lots of different perspectives.


im not anti american in any way...but the above point has pretty much summed my thoughts up.
 
I quickly heard on the news tonite that Spain was pulling its troops out - I wonder if this means Australia will need to make up the slack?
 
last time i checked, people in the army kinda knew what was expected of them when they signed up.

they get paid for this.
they were trained for this.
this is THEIR job.

bringing them home would be like me saying "man, i know you taught me how to scan items at this cash register, but i'd rather be at home with my family".
 
did americans belong in germany in world war II even though it was the japanese that brought the war to their soil?

besides, americans still occupy germany and have bases there, what's happening now isn't that new.
 
Last edited:
well yeah if the germans and japanese were on the same side? which i guess they were...?
 
As has been said, our troops should never have been sent in the first place, but i agree that as we were in there from the start, so we should be there at it's conclusion.
It's interesting to note that since Saddam's Capture there has been an escalation in fighting. All those Iraqies who sat it out in the beginning, for fear of being seen as pro Saddam have now been able concentrate on the common enemy, the U.S.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top