Godless Mom in the Bible Belt

Cindy Sheehan returned to her post outside Bush's ranch in Crawford after visiting with her mother who recently had a stroke. She isn't going away and neither are the other anti-war protesters who have rallied behind her.

There are large segments of the American population who believe that the troops should be brought home now. They claim (and rightly so, in my opinion) that our continued presence in Iraq is making the situation worse. Our current troop levels are insufficient to suppress and contain the insurgency long enough to train Iraqi troops to take over their own security and the fledgling Iraqi government we have created and are so intent on backing seems certain to bite the hand that provides it's security. Basically, these folks believe that we have moved beyond the point of anything good ever coming out of Iraq. They feel that no more lives should be lost in the direction of hopelessness.

Then, there are the folks who feel it would be unwise to just pull out of Iraq but believe it is time for a concrete exit strategy to be put into place. They don't feel that our continued indefinite presence is a good thing and they want our troops home. Yet they recognize the problems which our immediate withdrawal would cause and they want to try and avoid complete chaos, full blown civil war and an eventual hostile government (although I think that type of government is inevitable at this point.)

Then there are the "Stay the course" folks. They seem to think that setting a date for withdrawal would only empower the insurgents who would simply wait us out and then make their move. Unfortunately, staying the course is what got us here in the first place. I understand the logic behind not wanting to set a date but I don't see how "Staying the course" is any sort of solution to the problem at hand.

I honestly don't know what to think. I have opposed this war from the beginning and despise the lies and farmed intelligence which got us into this mess. But beating that dead horse doesn't get us anywhere. We are there and we have to deal with the situation as it currently stands, not as we wish it stood. I don't know that we are doing the Iraqi people any favors by our continued presence in their country, sure we are providing some segments of the population with security but our assistance is required because our presence stirs up conflict. It's a vicious cycle.

Much of our economy rests on stability in the Middle East. Whether I like it or not we ARE heavily reliant on their oil. Chaos in Iraq isn't good for anyone (especially us) but I honestly can't see order coming out of the current situation. Necessity is the mother of invention after all, perhaps without cheap Middle Eastern oil we will actually start putting some serious effort into alternative energy.

I guess I'm not smart enough to really figure this one out.

What do you guys think? Should we stay, should we pull out? Do you think we have a chance of succeeding in Iraq like Bush claims? What are the answers?

I'm going to be pretty busy over the next few weeks so my posts and comments may be a bit hit and miss until October.