64% Want All Or Some Of The U.S. Troops In Iraq To Come Home Now!-Renew Focus On Domestic Problems and Issues..

Source: USA Today

In a USA Today/Gallup poll, 64% responded that the time is now for troops in Iraq to come home.

WASHINGTON -- Americans, anxious about the costs of the Iraq war and the impact of a global economy, are increasingly wary of engagement in the world.

In a USA TODAY/Gallup Poll, nearly half of those surveyed said the United States "should mind its own business internationally and let other countries get along as best they can on their own." Three years ago, just one-third felt that way.

"There seems to be a turning inward across the American spectrum," says Charles Kupchan, a former State Department and National Security Council aide who now teaches at Georgetown University. He calls it "an inevitable consequence of Iraq."

The leave-us-alone mood is apparent not only in the proportion of Americans, 64%, who want all or some of the U.S. troops in Iraq to come home now.

I understand these feelings by the general public on many levels.

We, the U.S., being one of the few remaining super powers in the world, do carry the mantle of steward for those in need.

The country has a flux of resources, technology, and infrastructure to be anywhere in the world within 24 hours to help a region through a horrible crisis.

The United States cannot continue this direction of helping others at the cost of neglecting their own backyard. Many important issues get often backtracked or sidelined in the name of the "war on terror".

Things, like the following, often go ignored and pushed under the political rug:
1.) Poverty
2.) Budget restraint and fiscal responsibility
3.) Corruption and a lobbyist-tainted government
4.) Failing school systems (no thanks to "no (every poor) child left behind")
5.) Failure to fund mandates like the previously mentioned item
6.) Shifting of the tax burden from the nation's wealthiest to the working poor and middle class
7.) Lack of preparation for a highly probable avian flu outbreak
8.) Lack of continued anti-terror efforts (ports, anyone?)

This list could go on for days.

It's like a "who's who" list of Republican-controlled failures, but that's not the point.

The point is that the weeds and muck are waist-high in our backyard while we are meddling and pointing the finger at others' problems. More attention needs to be put on the issues of the day at home while keeping that role as a good partner in world politics.

This requires good leadership that can manage several fronts at once, and we are seriously lacking that right now.

Too bad for us, I guess?

November 2008 cannot come any sooner....

Our troops, hopefully, will come home one day...the only question is when?

Tags: [USA Today], [Gallup Poll], [new poll shows that 64% want some or all of troops to come home from Iraq], [the U.S. needs to learn to take care of domestic matters first before trying to "help" the world], [leadership problems], [war on terror]