Should British troops be removed from Iraq?

I think america is there for the so-called "war on terror". whereas in the eyes of the british public we are there because tony made a mistake. its pretty much a concensus now that going into Iraq was a bad idea. Whereas in America people still tend to support it?

Yeah get them out of there, we had no business being there in the first place.

You mean terrorists only target the US? If not, why should the US help Britain if Britain does nothing in return?

Yeh, i just think if we pull out now we will look weak. In the eyes of the arab AND the western world.

I still disagree with it though. We are stuck in the quicksand, hopefully things might improve. Or we can slowly reduce our numbers so that it looks less like a pull out.... dunno.

you would be sucking blairs balls.

Er no thanks, Blair is an idiot, no wonder this country is messed up, we didn't need to go to war, there was no proof, even after the inspectors turned the place over.

Sounds so much like Vietnam...history is repeating itself!

Before the invasion iraq had nothing to do with terrorism. The war has made Iraq a terrorist stronghold, exactly the oposiite of our aims.

The US fighting in iraq does not help britain (or anybody ) imo.

And you make the false assumption that the main motivation for war was the presence of WMD, and not an attempt to spread democracy and overthrow a totalitarian regime.

Ok, my feelings:

1) We should never have gone there in the first place,
2) But seeing as we are there we have a duty to uphold our word. So we should stay and try and see through what we started (even though it was a bad decision).
3) We should try and withdraw as much as possible without losing face to the world or the americans. I have no wish to be involved in this "war" but i also think we can't abandom our "allies" either.

Yeh, i just think if we pull out now we will look weak. In the eyes of the arab AND the western world.

Well why didn't they tell us that at the outset instead of lying through their teeth about WMD(?), which many members of this forum seem to think is fine.

Because a vast majority of people wouldn't support a war for that reason. That much was made blatantly clear by the lack of public support for the interventions in Somalia and Yugoslavia.

That justifies the lying?

However I missed this the first time; it would appear we believe in the same course but for differing reasons. In my opinion the coalition, being the cause of the current state Iraq is in, are morally obliged to finish the job- to achieve what was promised at whatever cost to the occoupying nations.

In Vietnam, the US was actually defending an ally (South Vietnam) that was attacked by another country (North Vietnam). A loss in Vietnam meant South Vietnam being wiped off the map. A loss in Iraq is not going to lead to someone annexing Iraq or the terrorists coming to power. The US relied on proxies for over two decades before it got involved in Vietnam; it got involved in Iraq right away. Vietnam was helped by other countries, including the Soviet Union. No country is helping the insurgents in Iraq (not to the same extent anyway). The objective of Vietnam was to keep the communists from spreading to South Vietnam (even if this required supporting the authoritarian rulers of South Vietnam). The objective of Iraq was democracy promotion and regime change (and indirectly, energy security).

But the US was involved in both wars. And it didn't do too well in either. Therefore, the wars are identical.

It isn't a battle for American satefy either, so I fail to see your point.

If they did have weapons of mass destruction then you would not be saying we had no business going there, you would be sucking blairs balls.

We cant pull out, we have to see it through, i dont think its even going badly, Taleban are dying everyday in far greater numbers than us, and with the 2500 troops from the UN about to be put in i dont think this can be seen as illegal anymore either as the UN is donating troops. Well not directly but it is forcing other countries to donate, Poland are sending 1000 troops over.

No business being there? America are our allies and like it or not you have to accept that, they entered wars that were nothing to do with them, World War II in Europe for example, and to be honest without their added numbers we possibly would have lost the war, so they ask for our help i dont think you can just say no, bit selfish.

If they did have weapons of mass destruction then you would not be saying we had no business going there, you would be sucking blairs balls.