Presence of American Troops Don't Cause Iraqis to Kill Each Other

If you click on the link in this entry's title, you can read a New York Times article on how Republican Senators are worried that the Iraqi War is going to cost them more Senate seats, especially the New Hampshire seat of John Sununu. New Hampshire has been trending Democratic for the last decade or so, and this last election saw the defeat of Republican incumbent U.S. House Representatives. In the article there are several Republicans, and at least one Democrat, quoted as saying that you can't set a deadline for withdrawal because all the enemy has to do is out wait you to win the war.

On the face of it, that sounds very plausible, but it ignores one important fact: most of the recent violence by Iraqis is mostly aimed at other Iraqis, not American troops. It is sectarian violence committed by Iraqis upon Iraqis. The problem isn't the presence of the American troops, it is the desire of Iraqis to kill each other for sectarian reasons. American troops don't make Iraqis kill each other, that is something they want to do for their own reasons.

The American responsibility for this state of affairs only goes so far. It is true that we disposed the Hussein government that had imposed order, albeit by oppressing Iraqis. It is also true that this removal has led to an environment where Iraqis are able to kill each other for sectarian reasons, but, in the final analysis, if Iraqis didn't want to kill each other, most Iraqi deaths would not be occurring.

The question that the Republicans supporting Bush don't want to debate is whether the United States should keep incurring causalities trying to stop Iraqis from killing each other. Does the United States want to keep American troops in Iraq long enough for the Iraqis to come to the realization that they shouldn't kill each other for sectarian reasons. If so, how long is that going to take and what is the cost to the United States?