What ethical principles should guide deciding when the troops should leave Iraq?
If the Iraqi government tells us to leave, we should leave. We’re there to help them; we’re there to assist them in being able to get to the place where they can defend themselves. As the president has said, as the Iraqi armed forces and police forces stand up, we will stand down. We have no desire to be there any longer than we’re needed and any longer that the Iraqi government wishes us to be there. At the point where the Iraqis are able to defend their citizens and to deal with terrorist activities and those who would destabilize their society, and they are able to approach the place where the sovereign government of Iraq will have a monopoly on the use of force, which is one of the definitions of a civilized culture, when the government has a monopoly on the use of force. You know, there’s a part of the just war theory, actually, that it’s only a duly constituted government that can authorize the use of military force. Lethal force has to be authorized by the proper legitimate auth
