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Article: The ethics of exit: Iraq's first democratic elections in decades have passed, and a new Iraqi government is getting on its feet. Is it time for the United States and its allies to leave? What is the U.S. obligation and when is it discharged? In this FP Roundtable, five leading experts argue over what it will take for the United States to bid Iraq a proper farewell.
- Article from:
- Foreign Policy
- Article date:
- May 1, 2005
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Avoiding Betrayal
By Lawrence F. Kaplan
Critics of the decision to go to war would do well to recognize that we are no longer debating the merits of invading Iraq; we are debating the merits of abandoning Iraq. Now that the United States has turned that country inside out and created conditions that Iraqis do not have the means to remedy alone, a premature withdrawal would hardly right what most advocates of doing so consider to be the wrongs of the past. And greater wrongs do exist.
One is indifference; another is betrayal. If we "bring the troops home" before stability is returned to Iraq, the United States would be guilty of both.
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