Screw you, Iraq, we're not leaving

Iraq’s National Security Advisor is the latest official to insist on a timetable for withdrawing from Iraq, following such dead enders such as the Iraqis themselves, not to mention al Maliki and the Iraqi Parliament (in fact, this is one of the only things that they do agree on).

But these silly Iraqis just don’t get it. It really doesn’t matter that 70% of Iraqis want us out. Or that top official after top official call for a timetable for our troops to leave. Or that the point of McCain’s ill-fated surge was to allow for political progress, which there has been none of. Or that most Americans want our troops out, and that keeping our troops in Iraq is hurting the cause in Afghanistan as well as Pakistan – the places where the Taliban and al Qaeda are. Or that more troops are now dying in Afghanistan than Iraq.

No, what matters is that John McCain says that the Iraqi government can’t make us leave (not to mention that he wants to keep our troops there for 100 years), that General Petraeus isn’t about to come up with any plan for withdrawal, and that even though members of Congress are asking for that, Congress is still providing hundreds of billions of dollars to ongoing operations in Iraq with no strings attached.

So, while these Iraqis whine and some members of Congress continue to act in the best interests of America, none of them realize that it isn’t their place to say what happens in their own country. After all, we liberated them, so they owe us. The timetable will be our timetable, not anyone else’s. And if you look at other “strategic acquisitions” made over this country’s history – this is not unlike the Louisiana Purchase, the purchase of Manhattan, or even the “liberation” of Texas.

This is for the Iraqi’s own good. It is for the good of the region. It is our “manifest destiny”. It is the “Pottery Barn rule”, and since it ain’t “fixed” yet, then we have an obligation to stay there as long as it takes to fix it – Iraqi officials or citizens be damned.

We are there, and we are not leaving. There can be hand wringing, there can be demands, there can be calls from the Iraqis, the Americans, the Iraqi officials and the US Congress for withdrawal. But none of this matters.

Congress is funding this ongoing occupation with no withdrawal dates attached (and even if they did, it wouldn’t be listened to), nobody thought of what to do after “shock and awe” and the Iraqis don’t know that we are really there to hear them say “God, I love freedom", even if we have to force it down their throats at gunpoint. Don’t they realize that they just aren’t grateful enough of what we are doing for them?

What are they going to do anyway, attack our troops? Don’t they realize that one of the Presidential candidates doesn’t care about the troops, nor do far too many people in Congress?

So go ahead and call for a withdrawal – it won’t happen. There is a better chance of Iraq becoming the 51st state than anything else. After all, how long as it been since Iraqis paid their taxes to the US – a country that has laid out all of this cash and to what benefit?