Iraq: Worth the Blood and Treasure?
San Diego, CA, March 08, 2007 --(PR.com)-- This week on PublicSquare.net, two pundits with very divergent views debate the most prominent foreign affairs story of our time: Iraq.
Robert Dreyfuss, a columnist for The Nation, Mother Jones, and The American Prospect, argues in “Catch-22, Iraq-Style” that American involvement in Iraq is doomed to failure because the very people who can help us are the least popular among ordinary Iraqis: “The catch-22 of politics in Iraq, at least from the standpoint of the United States, is that any leader that Washington decides to support becomes—precisely because of that support—a leader that few, if any, Iraqis respect.”
But Quin Hillyer, senior editor at The American Spectator, defends the U.S. occupation in “Why Iraq Is Worth the Effort:” “Of course it is worth a fight to weaken Syria and Iran, hobble terrorists, and serve as a beacon of freedom. Of course it is worth a fight to have another major, stable, American-friendly state in the Middle East. And based on the evidence so far, it is not utterly unreasonable to believe those goals are still within reach. As long as the goals are both noble and reasonable, it would be foolish to give up a fight that is not yet over.”
Dreyfuss then responds in “Iraq Is Worth Fighting For—For Iraqis”: “The Iraqis consider their country worth fighting for, and they will fight us to the last man, until we leave. We are an invading force, and they don’t want us there. We invaded Iraq illegally. It is called a ‘war of choice,’ but in fact it is a war of aggression.”
Hillyer replies to Dreyfuss in “America’s Noble Goals in Iraq” by defending the decision to invade in 2003: “Iraqis did not choose their own government under Saddam but that it is thanks to American intervention that they have done so now. Rather than ‘fighting us until the last man, until we leave,’ many Iraqis continue to welcome us.”
Be sure to read the entire debate for yourself and decide where you come down—on the right, on the left, or somewhere in between. And, of course, you can put in your own two cents in the discussion forum that follows.
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Robert Dreyfuss, a columnist for The Nation, Mother Jones, and The American Prospect, argues in “Catch-22, Iraq-Style” that American involvement in Iraq is doomed to failure because the very people who can help us are the least popular among ordinary Iraqis: “The catch-22 of politics in Iraq, at least from the standpoint of the United States, is that any leader that Washington decides to support becomes—precisely because of that support—a leader that few, if any, Iraqis respect.”
But Quin Hillyer, senior editor at The American Spectator, defends the U.S. occupation in “Why Iraq Is Worth the Effort:” “Of course it is worth a fight to weaken Syria and Iran, hobble terrorists, and serve as a beacon of freedom. Of course it is worth a fight to have another major, stable, American-friendly state in the Middle East. And based on the evidence so far, it is not utterly unreasonable to believe those goals are still within reach. As long as the goals are both noble and reasonable, it would be foolish to give up a fight that is not yet over.”
Dreyfuss then responds in “Iraq Is Worth Fighting For—For Iraqis”: “The Iraqis consider their country worth fighting for, and they will fight us to the last man, until we leave. We are an invading force, and they don’t want us there. We invaded Iraq illegally. It is called a ‘war of choice,’ but in fact it is a war of aggression.”
Hillyer replies to Dreyfuss in “America’s Noble Goals in Iraq” by defending the decision to invade in 2003: “Iraqis did not choose their own government under Saddam but that it is thanks to American intervention that they have done so now. Rather than ‘fighting us until the last man, until we leave,’ many Iraqis continue to welcome us.”
Be sure to read the entire debate for yourself and decide where you come down—on the right, on the left, or somewhere in between. And, of course, you can put in your own two cents in the discussion forum that follows.
###
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