Mission Accomplished: Year 4

Congress has passed legislation to funds the troops in Iraq and Mr. Bush does not like the conditions attached to it, namely a timetable for withdrawal. It’s almost certain that the president will veto this legislation and engage members of congress in negotiating a new and improved form of funding the troops “a la Bush” meaning: Give me the money and shut up.

After four years of his ill conceived declaration of mission accomplished aboard a carrier, dressed on his weekend warrior flyer suit, the president is basically alone, except of course for a few of his hard core elite of supporters and is finding out that the people, who sent the democrats to congress are not willing to give him another chance to continue the carnage of our own in Iraq.

Republicans of course are still lining up behind Bush as a matter of partisanship, but their numbers are not rock solid. Some on the right are questioning the failed strategy and taking steps to the center looking more like democrats, in some cases than democrats themselves. They are sensing the potential losses in 2008 if they continue supporting the president without questioning his policies. Even many in the military are not sure what the heck to do with the problem, while having to look professional and politically unbiased.

The crude reality is that nothing to change the situation has been done, not because of the lack of trying but because in reality there is nothing that can be done. Again and again it has been said that this is a political internal problem Iraqis have to resolve on their own. It doesn’t matter how many troops we send, how long they will stay, even if they are or not successful in controlling the situation. At some point and time, during this president’s time in office or his successor, our troops will have to come home. That’s a fact.

The American people will not stand for a permanent deployment just to secure a country and neither the Iraqis will tolerate it. So, the bottom line is that the argument made about timelines equating to loosing the war is not valid.

The war, as most Americans see it, was won when the intended objective was accomplished, getting rid of Sadam Hussein. While everyone with a half a brain understands that we were misled into taking such action, the majority of people in the US has come to terms and accepted the outcome of dethroning a guy who never posed any danger to us. Fine, we were misled, the action was taken, and the “danger” is out. On the other hand, the continuation of our presence in Iraq has been nothing more than a futile attempt to make the original sin look benign.

Bush thought that, by artificially creating a paradisiacal region in Iraq, with the oil flowing and money exchanging hands, the country would be an “example” of what can be done by sheer force applied from the west. Not to mention the enormous profits allocated to some of his corporate friends, the vice-president ‘s friends and many others who were licking their whisks thinking about how much more business could be flowing from the region.

Finally, an extra bonus if all this crazy scenario had succeeded, would have been that by westernizing Iraq, Israel finally may have enjoyed a better image in the region gaining a local ally, as opposed to being the perennial sore thumb among all the Arab countries.

Nevertheless, the situation today is such that we have two choices: Go for the Bush solution - which is stay for as long as he deems proper and nothing else in terms of relief - or, set a withdrawal date and let the Iraqis solve their own problems. To Bush and his cronies, the later is the equivalent of a defeat and I fail to understand why. Since Bush has no idea what a victory will look like, how and when can such victory come about, there is no room for defeat, just more troops being randomly killed, more Iraqis shot and decapitated by sectarian violence and more time for terrorists to train yet more insurgents and sympathizers. Every day we stay in that country we give the outcasts, urban guerrillas, terrorists or whatever you want to call them, another reason to convince more people that they have to join the effort to throw out the foreigners, namely us. Every day we stay there we also take from the Iraqis the urgency of taking care of their own business waiting for our troops to either face the problem or take the blame.

We can play the game of switching targets forever. First it was 9/11. When that was proven to be wrong, it was Sadam Hussein. After Hussein’s demise, it was the idea of reconstruction. When that failed miserably, came the idea of stabilizing the country and trying to salvage the mess we’ve created. Now that we are in an increasing cycle of violence and failure, is the idea of victory - which may prove to be very elusive - and on and on. As long as we allow the president to name new objectives over and over again, we could be there for generations or at least until a new president takes the helm in 2008 and has the guts to call things for what they really are without delusional expectations.

Some Americans, hopefully with the best intentions, pointed to the fact that if we leave Iraq it will be a disservice to those who sacrificed their lives in this war. Why? Having more American soldiers killed on behalf of a bad strategy will honor those who passed away already? I don’t’ think so. And that’s what amounts to, since Bush has no other strategy but to continue with more of the same.

I can understand there is a lot of pride at stake on the part of the president and his acolytes, especially now that are being ostracized in their policies, but Bush, if he wants to be remembered at all in the history books, could have a better chance of, if not glory, at least some consideration, by ordering our troops out of Iraq. People will remember his mistakes, misleading assertions and stupid moves, but they will also give him credit for recognizing he’s human and can have a change of heart, a minute of enlightment, beyond pure stubbornness, sarcastic remarks and carefully prepared speeches. Not counting the gratitude of parents of soldiers, today wandering if they’ll ever see their offspring alive.