Ron Paul says that we should leave Iraq. When? Tomorrow. As soon as possible.

Why? Well, as a doctor he knows that if your treatment doesn’t work, you change your treatment. Staying isn’t working, so leaving will work.

The logic goes like this “Staying is causing problems, leaving will cause problems. We might as well leave and save our money and soldiers.”

On the surface, this is a valid argument, but beneath the surface it is an entirely selfish agenda.

Ron Paul is famous for not selling out, for not voting or preaching any cause that he does not believe in. I believe Ron Paul is selling out with his “peace” campaign. Not selling out in the sense that he does not believe we should leave Iraq or that he does not believe we shouldn’t have attacked. He believes both of those things.

However, he is selling out with his solution. Americans are impatient with the Iraq conflict as they have been with every war that has lasted longer than 6 months. They want change, and Ron Paul is offering that change. He is preaching an impossibly simple plan with no regard for unintended consequences.

Ron Paul also preaches that much of the Islamic terrorism we are experiencing today is the result of blowback….retaliation for our intervention in middle eastern politics.

And this is where it all falls apart.

It was a mistake for us to invade Iraq.  I supported it at the time. I trusted George Bush and the rest of American politicians who told me it was neccessary. I had a few reservations, but I did not voice them so they are irrelevant at this stage in the debate.

This invasion has caused much hardship for the Iraqi people. As with any war, we targeted Iraqi infrastructure and serverely disrupted their economy and basic systems such as their power grid.

Our lackluster follow up plan has seen much violence from terrorists both internal and external. We underestimated the size of the job and the Iraqi people suffered for this.

Staying is also causing problems….for us. We have gone into amazing amounts of debt and lost thousands of Americas greatest citizens in our continuing efforts. Each day costs money and lives.

Leaving will cause problems as well.  Abandoning our efforts leaves the Iraqi people vulnerable to the most violent sects. The ones that we are resisting right now.

So when Ron Paul supporters say “Staying is cauing problems, leaving causes problems. We should leave.” They are being disingenuous. They presume that the world problem as consistent meaning and moral weight throughout the statement. It does not.

Staying causes problems for us. We have to spend money. We have to lose lives. It is inconvenient and politically unpopular.

Leaving creates problems for them. Lack of infrastructure leads to more violence and upheaval.

The difference is responsiblity. Having caused the state that Iraq is in, it is our moral obligations to repair it…even at the cost of American money and lives.

Leaving is selfish and dangerous. By leaving Iraq in a more unstable fashion than we found it, we fuel the hatred of terrorists. We create a situation ripe for “blowback”.  We strengthen the recruiting of Al Queda.

Don’t trust anyone who says that an action is the right thing to do, when the results of that action benefit them.

As voters and members of a representative democracy, we are implicated in the mistakes our leaders make.  It is our job to support them as they attempt to mend that situation.