A New Perspective on Iraq

This past Tuesday, a speaker came to my school and retold of his experience serving in Iraq. There for approximately a year and half, he worked within the prison system at places like Abu Ghraib and Camp Bucca. His knowledge of the prison system from 2005 to 2006 has illuminated one of most intricate problems in Iraq for me: an end to this conflict is unable to be seen, yet the complexity of the prisons would collapse with immediate withdrawal.
While his explanation of the temporary detention centers and prisons was quite a long speech, I will try to condense it - To arrest a civilian in Iraq, a soldier does not need a warrant or police order. All they need is anything considered suspicious; the smell of gun powder, their location, being in the wrong place at the wrong time. After this, they are sent to a temporary detention center, which are usually just old buildings where they herded on to. The officers their have 13 days to interrogate and question them, with a possible 20 days in total with an extension. If they are found suspicious, they are sent to Abu Ghraib. Here they spend a minimum of 60 days while people investigate their files, take a retina scan, fingerprints, and a picture for records. About 42 arrived everyday back in 2005 and 2006 according to the officer, with around 3000 people in total. After the 60 days, the case is appealed by a case of 6 Americans and 6 Iraqis. If the detainees are proven free of guilt, they are released back into the general area of where they were caught. However, about 10%(this is a rough, ROUGH Number given by the officer) go on to Camp Bucca, the prison for the guilty. This camp had 5000 detainees, and were building new facilities as he left for home. With these overcrowded jails as well as a "guilty until proven innocent" laws, there are problems within this system.
Most of these prisoners have been arrested on charges of sectarian violence. While many Americans say to simply leave Iraq, Iraq is rebounding from a oppressive Sunni dictator and has been torn with sectarian violence. Because this is the reason for most of the country's instability, the US has been concentrated on simply stopping it by arresting these people. But with so many sent to Abu Ghraib, the officer said you can't put a timetable on Iraq. Thus many say we cannot leave Iraq because this delicate system of prisons and detentions centers would be in vain and be completely demolished. While some people believe that jailing these people and separating them must be done to stop the violence, this is really only sweeping it under the rug.
To end, this prison system is working, but not as effective as it could be. Instead, we should go to the root of problem, sectarian violence. This could be extremely difficult, but it is important that we use every possible diplomatic effort before resorting to this military prison system. Overcrowded and not to mention a large portion of the budget in Iraq, these prisons have no end in sight. It is similar to a weed: Sprouting from the roots of sectarian violence, branches of zealots have appeared. The US is cutting these branches down, but with them piling up and no knowledge of how fertile the soil still is, this unpredictable weed is becoming more of a problem. We cannot leave this weed alone to grow and block out the sun for other plants, but we also cannot simply cut it down to watch it regrow.