Re: Re: If you were an Iraqi, how would you view America?

Is it the US that is responsible for the deaths of all those Iraqis?  Yes.  But firstly, deaths of Iraqi civilians appears to be more in the range of 85,000 right now, not 1 million.  I'm no gov't expert but that sounds a lot like the number quoted so often by the gov't in WWII about how many Americans would be saved by this single terrible act of destruction (and possibly more terribly, mutiliation).  So I would doubt his credibility to begin with.  But even ignoring that, the more important question remains, do the Iraqis want us to leave?  The answer is complicated.  They don't like the deaths and they view us as responsible for that but they also recognize that while our intentions may or may not have been pure (does it really matter at this point?) we are currently the only nation with a stake in their future.  We are the only people pouring cash and troops into the country to provide stability.  We have to be willing to take responsibility for our actions as a nation and clean up after ourselves.  In Vietnam, no one wanted us there, but in Iraq people are split.  As a marine friend of mine once put it, "you break it, you buy it."

 as a side note, i opposed the war even before it happened but as soon as those first troops landed there was no choice.  you can't just pull out and pretend it never happened.