Official Chris Memo to President Bush and Congress - "We won the war"

Whether it be 2007, or 2017, I don't think some Americans will ever feel comfortable with us leaving Iraq. Why? Because they see it as "Retreat," or "Defeat." Let's remind those folks of some facts.

The Occupation of Iraq, also known as "Operation Iraqi Freedom," began March 20th, 2003. In a few months, we will hit the very significant 5 yr mark since the invasion of Iraq. President Bush and his administration told us of a threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. In 1991 Iraq agreed to a UN resolution to give up their weapons of mass destruction. Since 1991 weapons inspectors had been in Iraq, looking for them. There were times in the late 90s where Saddam Hussein blocked inspectors. After they had been there 5+ yrs and found nothing. Kinda like looking for drugs in a car for 5 yrs, and when someone says "ok can you stop looking now?" you say they are not "Allowing" you to properly search.

The Iraq Survey Group concluded in 2005 that Iraq had ended it's WMD operations in 1991. There was no evidence of a connection between Al Qaeda (those who coordinated the attacks of 9/11) and Saddam's administration.

On May 1st, 2003 President Bush stood on the USS Abraham Lincoln, and declared an end to major combat missions in Iraq. He stood in front of a sign that read "MISSION ACCOMPLISHED." Oh boy, imagine if it had truly "ended" there. Just two months after the beginning of the invasions. Not even hundreds of our brave men and women killed in combat yet.

On December 13, 2003 Saddam Hussein, was captured by coaltion forces. Ok, I can deal with that. 8 months after the beginning of the occupation, we have a true "mission accomplished." If Saddam was REALLY seeking more WMD like Bush's folks claimed, then it should have TRULY been over when he was finally captured and taken out of power once and for all...but was it? No...

After Saddam's capture, many Iraqis expected us to leave, atleast for the most part. We lived up to our promises, so why wouldn't we? Instead of doing that, we persued Iraq more. The insurgency, as it's known now, really took off in 2004. Radical islamic terrorists became further inflamed, and flooded the region like never before. They came from all over, taking advantage of Iraq's newly unstable borders.

On January 21, 2005 Iraqi's elected an interim government. Ok there goes our "Spreading Democracy around the world" goal.

Ok let's recap, it's January 31st, 2005:

Made sure they didn't have WMD - Check
Saddam captured, out of power - Check
Iraqis have free and democratic elections - Check

UGHHHHHHH January 31st 2005, was nearly 3 YEARS ago. Isn't something wrong with this picture? Am I just crazy?

By 2006 Iraq had a PERMANENT and active government.

Here we are, nearly December of 2007. President Bush issued a "surge" of troops in the beginning of the year. He added more than 20,000 US forces to Iraq. That HAS seemed to curb some of the violence in the region. Or atleast, reduce the number of US deaths nonetheless. But we're not the world police. There is violence all over the world, we can't stop violence from existing. We can try to assist in curbing the violence from a non-combat role though.

Soldiers' tours of duty have now been extended beyond imagination in some cases. Tours are now 16 months, instead of the usual 12 months. Our military is bogged down in a civil war in Iraq. A civil war that may never go away as long as we are occupying their country.

So where does all this lead us? Well, in my opinion, it's simply that someone is confused. I say we already "won." It's not "retreat" if we leave now, it's not a "defeat." That's WHAT YOU DO when you win a war. Who didn't get the memo?

We took out Saddam Hussein and made sure a dictator regime didn't have access to WMD (We should have made sure of that before invading, but that's a different story!), we helped Iraqis to free and fair elections, we WON. At least in the sense that we accomplished our main goals. That's what you do, you accomplish your goals, and you go home.

Please someone deliver the memo to President Bush and the Republicans in Congress. The war is over, we aren't retreating, we won a long time ago, someone just forgot!

Let's make the most of our military. The USA is the greatest country in the world. I appreciate the sacrifices of the brave men and women who have fought for our country and done the missions given to them, no matter what they are. We need to make the most of the military.

It's not that they aren't CAPABLE of finding Osama Bin Laden, they aren't being utilized in that area. It's not that they aren't capable of defending our OWN borders from the possible threat of terrorism at home, they just aren't being asked to do it. It's not that they aren't capable of helping to stop the genocides in Darfur, we aren't asking them to. There's so much we need them to do. Let them do their jobs, let them protect the interests of the United States of America around the world. Let's elect a leader who will properly utilize our military, and who will see a win as a win, collect our medals, and go home till the next fight. Let's elect Senator Hillary Clinton. Thank you.

-CHRIS MCLEOD-