We are running out of time. We need a strategy to win in Iraq or an exit strategy to leave.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
If you can't define a winning exit strategy for the American people, where we somehow come out ahead, then we're wasting our money, and we're wasting our strategic resources.
We must win in Iraq. If we withdraw, there will be chaos; there will be genocide; and they will follow us home.
Certainly our goal is to leave Iraq, but we can't leave Iraq with our forces until we know that the Iraqi security forces are capable and efficient enough to defend the sovereignty of the nation.
Leaving Iraq without military assistance during its transition, and before it is stable enough to ensure its own citizens' security, would pose a tremendous risk. We must complete our mission.
As much as we might look for opportunities to keep Iraq together, we need to be prepared for the reality that it's not going to stay together.
This policy of containment is not a winning strategy. We need a policy to defeat and destroy ISIS once and for all.
We are not going to abandon Iraq.
And we need to maintain our foothold in the fight against terrorism and terrorist groups and respond to any degradation of Iraqi security or stability.
Despite what you hear in the news from the Obama administration and the military, our strategy of conducting infrequent airstrikes and re-taking pockets of Iraq and Syria terrain will only help us achieve short-lived tactical victories.
Second, recent polls over there show that the majority of Iraqis want us to leave precipitously.
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