National Insecurity

I Have a Bad Feeling About This, Chewie

At this point, everybody with an ounce of honesty recognizes that our adventure in Iraq has turned into a huge mess with costs in blood, treasure, and global relationships far exceeding even critics' expectations. Arguments about justifications, lies, true intentions, bad planning, liberation, diplomatic incompetence, and missing WMD have long since been exhausted. The sad fact of the matter is we are where we are, whether you think this was an unnecessary series of calamitous mistakes or a particularly high price of bringing freedom to an oppressed people.

Let’s also be clear that we just now barely understand what we are doing. Talk with officers who served in Iraq and you will hear nearly unanimous scorn of the Coalition Provisional Authority and civilian reconstruction efforts and broad strategic doubt as to whether we really understand how to win in Iraq. The Administration repeated countless stories of economic development projects or infrastructure repaired as if these were meaningful metrics (e.g. the strength of the insurgency). Yes, there are pockets of progress but the key metric – security – remains entirely in doubt.

So we continue to absorb the massive burdens and secondary effects of US operations in Iraq while the Congress and public grows impatient for exit. Yet leaving now would only ensure a disastrous end to the policy with little return for our massive expenditure of lives, money, risk, and political opportunity. Only if we leave with a semblance of order and sense of optimism from the Iraqis themselves can we improve the long term global impact of Bush’s folly.

Anyone got the answer?

posted by Nick Dowling @ 11:17 PM