Attack on Yazidis: What Iraq Will Look Like if American Troops Withdraw Prematurely

Horrific suicide bomber attacks were made upon Yazidis in northern Iraq earlier this week. The Yazidis are "a small Kurdish-speaking sect that has been targeted by Muslim extremists who consider its members to be blasphemers." They live in a remote area where there are few American troops.

"This is an act of ethnic cleansing, if you will, almost genocide," Army Maj. Gen. Benjamin Mixon, commander of U.S. forces in northern Iraq, told CNN.

Those who are calling for immediate or near-term withdrawal of American troops from Iraq need to look closely at the pictures from these attacks. They are stomach-turning. Yet, this is what Iraq will look like if American troops are withdrawn prematurely, before Iraqi forces are ready to take over their country's security.

Do Americans want to see night after night of ethnic cleansing -- the results of civil war -- from Iraq on an unimaginable scale? I don't. Yes, we have seen many pictures and reports of suicide bombings and sectarian attacks on civilians for the past three years. They will look like a walk in the park compared to what will come if we withdraw early.

Do we remember the horrors of Rwandaa and Kosovo? Are we aware of what has been happening in the Sudan? Are those the kind of pictures we want with our dinner every night on the evening news or with our breakfast on the morning news shows? I believe that is exactly what we will see if we leave Iraq before the Iraqis are ready politically and militarily to secure their country and establish a viable democracy.

Our withdrawal would result in a bloodbath of ethnic cleansing: a holocaust. I agree there has been abundant mismanagement of the military efforts to establish the peace in Iraq after defeating Saddam Hussein. Donald Rumsfeld and his team served President Bush poorly in not planning effectively for the aftermath of the removal of Hussein. Nonetheless, I do not want us to be responsible for the deaths and injuries of millions of Iraqis in a civil war.

Hatred of President Bush has blinded many liberals to the raw reality of what would happen if Iraq descends into a full civil war. Ironically, these same liberals were quick to advocate our intervention into the Kosovo battles between ethnic Albanians and the Serbs. They have condemned our failure to intervene in Rwandaa, a bloodbath between ethnic tribes. These same anti-Iraq war protesters are critical that the U.S. has not rushed in to resolve the conflict in Darfur between Northern (Muslim) and Southern (Christian) Sudanese.

All of these are civil wars between ethnic or sectarian rivals. Why, if it is a moral imperative for us to rescue the underdogs in the civil wars in Rwandaa, Kosovo, and the Sudan, would it not be so to prevent a bloodbath in an Iraq civil war?

President George Washington wisely warned us in his Farewell Address to avoid "foreign involvements." I would respect a viewpoint that says the United States should remain neutral and avoid involvement in civil strife in other countries. But, I believe it is pure hypocrisy to advocate intervention in these other cases and not in Iraq.