Some scenarios

Scenario 1.

You walk into the local diner with some friends. You invited more but only a few came. You told your friends you had a coupon for a free meal for all. The food is okay. The service is somewhat lacking. You start looking through your wallet for that coupon.

The problem is you don't have that coupon. You knew that going in there. In fact, you're not sure you ever had it. Other patrons are staring and pointing fingers. Perhaps you thought your friend who is a waitress might help you out.

Slowly, your friends start to realise you don't have that coupon or any money whatsoever. Those friends begin to slip out the door. Now you're wondering if you should do the same.

Scenario 2.

You're a younger, suave, male with great aspirations and noble ideals. You befriend a stunning young lady who trusts you without question. You mistake infatuation for love. She lives in an abusive home and was looking for security. You tell her you will always be there for her and this is the ultimate act to express that love.

As in all "After-School-Specials" you fail to wear the appropriate protective gear. That stunning young lady is now carrying a child. Her parents reject her along with her friends and peers. She wants to keep the baby and she wants your help.

You expected a quick, enjoyable, relationship. Now everyone is telling you to run.

Scenario 3

You're a surgeon who has begun a heart transplant. Admittedly, the heart had problems. It was causing the lungs to work more than they should. Instead, you (the surgeon) tell the patient the heart has to be replaced because the brain-heart widget is broken. Being wondrous studies of anatomy and physiology, we know there is no brain-heart widget. However, the patient is on the table, you have removed the heart, and Oh? Did I mention we don't have a donor?

The point.

In each situation you have done something you perhaps should not have done. You are responsible for the situation, if not fully, at least in part. You made the mess. You clean it up.

Just because you may have created the mess under less than honorable motives, it does not absolve you of your responsibilities.

That said, make WMD the coupon. Iraq the diner. Iraq the poor girl and stability and sovereignty the child. Or, lastly, Iraq is the patient.

Many activists are calling for the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq because the pretense for the invasion is lacking in veracity at a minimum.

Well too bad. You've eaten the meal, the young lady is expecting, and you better find a suitable heart.

The withdrawal of forces from Iraq will not rectify any injustice incurred. Certainly, it will only amplify the problem. It is naive to think such a withdrawal will improve the situation. In a politically unstable region such as the middle east where human rights violations abound, such a withdrawal would lead to greater chaos. Chaos which undoubtedly would lead to a larger theater war destined to re-draw the US military into a larger and likely more distasteful engagement.

Perhaps the conflict is about oil. Fair enough. Get off your high horse... Scratch that. Get on your high horse and stop driving yourself to work. Stop running your PC 24/7 and using up power generated from fossil fuels. It is easy to take the road of nobility when you don't have to be accountable for your personal actions.

Anyone who purports to believe a complete and unilateral withdrawal from Iraq would improve the situation needs to lay off the psychoactives. The world is a shitty place. Yes, hindsight clearly shows there are better routes. Guess what though? You can't go back. It's done.

It is incredibly irresponsible and immoral not to clean up this mess.