Probably a fair idea...remember, I'm the young end of the Viet Nam generation, so I went to college with a lot of returned Vets (worked as a tutor through the VA office) and my Dad did a tour. He didn't talk about it much, but some of the other guys would.

>You have some valid points. Do you have any idea the number of times a unit is sent into a foreign country and after they arrive and have been there a while they sit there and ask themselves "What the h_ll are we doing here? They don't want us here..."
>
>>The same way they were done before we got there.
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>>I don't disagree that "we broke it, we should fix it" - I'm one of those people who returns things is as good, or better, shape as when I borrowed it - but when it's far more dangerous to fix it or someone comes in a breaks what we just fixed, isn't that sort of 'throwing good money after bad'? And after a certain point I start thinking 'chump don't want the help, chump don't need the help'.
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>>That notwithstanding, I think there reaches a point where whatever is trying to 'help' is so distasteful to the 'helpee' that it just makes the situation worse.
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>>Look, I'm sorry my government felt the need to go in and fubar Iraq, but if I could see a way to 'fix' it without losing more personnel (not to mention all the money that has been 'misplaced') I'd be all for it. But to waste more time, lives and money just to make Halliburton or KB richer, oh no to the hell power. Open up bidding on the rebuilding jobs, get a multi-national oversight committee in there to ensure that the winning bid is legitimate and let 'em go.
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>>My government has managed to make sure that almost anything we do as a governmental entity is suspect in Iraq and I think it is time we backed out of the situation and let less 'spotted' hands take over. Offer aid in money and material, certainly, but we (as a governmental entity) need to get the heck outta Dodge (or Bagdad) and let their own sheriff run it.
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>>Now, before the chest-beating, flag-waving, 'if you don't agree with me you're a terrorist lover' get started....yes, I DO love my country, I just don't like its government much nor do I agree with many of its decisions that it has made in *my* name. As is my right, guaranteed by the framework set up for that government. The ideal was "Of the people, by the people and FOR the people", not "Of the 'right' people, by the rich and FOR my friends"
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>>
>>>
>>>You may remember, the night the war started, Baghdad was all lit up for as far as the eye could see (by lighting, I mean, not by bombs. That sggests to me that their water and sewage system were in working order too.
>>>Now, country-wide, electricity is sporadic and last 2 hours or less, water is mainly unavailable from taps and the sewage system is still broken.
>>>
>>>The war broke all these things (plus, most importantly, security of the people). Seems to me there's still an obligation to get these thing back in working order. How can that be done if the troops are gone?