The End Debate On Iraq War

It was a major news event on BBC last night when the three remaining U.S. presidential election hopefuls attended and participated in the Senate Committee Foreign Relations hearing on the war in Iraq, centering on the progress and status of the military campaign being waged by America over there.

Senator John McCain, the Republican’s official nominee courageously contended against any form of troops withdrawal, citing extreme sectarian tensions that could boil over towards a bloody civil war if America lets go of control over Iraq. A ‘precipitous withdrawal’, as they term it nowadays, by U.S. troops would endanger not only the Iraqis but also open up hazards for America.

Both Senator Barack Obama and Senator Hillary Clinton of the Democratic Party maintained their call for gradual troops withdrawal despite the plea of Gen. David Petraius, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, to have a moratorium in troops withdrawal at the soonest time possible.

Senator Obama is batting for a form or level of “success” in the U.S. campaign in Iraq where troops withdrawal could be well justified but he and General Petraeus could not seem to agree on this.

Senator Clinton’s approval of the war in Iraq, when it was put for affirmation by U.S. President George W, Bush years ago, had become once ominous, thanks to Senator Obama’s rhetoric, and for that, she could possibly take a middle ground as to whether or not there should be troops reduction in the soonest possible time.

Of major note is the so-called recent “surge” in U.S. military operations where it is shown through recent data that the military campaign in Iraq had gained some progress as violence have abated somehow, as compared to last year. This is the “surge” that General Petraeus wants to sustain that he now calls for a temporary stop in troops withdrawal for the moment.

To be sure, if either of Senator Obama or Senator Clinton wins this November, he or she would be in direct confrontation with the present military officials handling Iraq where a McCain presidency would be in the opposite direction.

This now becomes a very grave concern for the U.S. electorate. A lot of Americans want the war in Iraq to end. But the generals want to pursue it to the very end, even if the end means 20 years or 50 years from now, even if everyone agrees that U.S. military resource, as well as the economic whole, is “finite” and not “infinite”. And somehow, John McCain makes sense when he says that a pullout now would throw Iraq into bloody disarray. And to complicate the matter, the Democrats may actually win the presidency.

To stay the course or not to stay the course?

This is one of the main questions that the American people have to consider in their decision as to the next president of America this coming November.

On the ballot sheet, it would be the simple question of whether to choose the Republican way or the Democratic way. But in the whole of things, the fate of the Iraq War as well as that of the Iraqi people (and global stability for that matter), becomes a very complicated question that no amount of hearings could resolve.