[Debate] It Would Be Violent if We Left Iraq

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

<http://www.fair.org/blog/2011/08/17/it-would-be-violent-if-we-left-iraq/>
It Would Be Violent if We Left Iraq
08/17/2011 by Peter Hart
A headline and subhead in the Los Angeles Times:

Iraq attacks raise new concerns about U.S. pullout
Suicide bombings, car explosions and gunfire that killed at least 70
in an apparently coordinated assault suggests Iraqi forces may be
overwhelmed by insurgents after American troops withdraw.

Of course, these attacks happened while U.S. troops are still in the
country-- making the point about the U.S. "pullout" somewhat hard to
follow.

But this is a familiar argument. Remember the Time magazine cover
photo of a disfigured Afghan woman last July? The magazine's political
point was summed up by the text on the cover: "What Happens If We
Leave Afghanistan." The attack that left her disfigured happened with
U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

The implication in both cases is that violence will overcome these
countries due to the absence of U.S. troops-- which obviously obscures
the fact that the U.S. presence is often the source of such violence,
or the justification used by armed groups seeking to drive out U.S.
troops.

-- 
Yoshie Furuhashi
<http://mrzine.org/>