McCain Walks Freely. Sure!

Senator McCain is blasting Senator Obama now because the Democrat has not gone to Iraq in the last two years and, according to McCain’s theory, that makes Obama out of touch with the reality on the ground.
Well, none of us, common folks, has gone to Iraq either and yet seventy five percent of the population wants this war ended regardless.

The problem with McCain’s attack on Obama is that the majority of our citizenry believes that we shouldn’t sacrifice more of our troops and resources in that part of the World. We have enough problems of our own right here at home.

Besides, let’s say that the situation really has improved in Iraq even though is difficult to see how. Why then can’t we plan a removal of our soldiers in an orderly manner? If the Iraqi people can take care of their country there’s no reason for a longer stay.

On the other hand, if the situation continues to be volatile because of our presence and the perceived image of our troops as foreigner invaders there is no end in sight, making the premise of staying even for one hundred years more believable.

If the leader of our country has to physically go to every place on earth, where we are involved, to understand what’s going on, the White House would be a very lonely building. That’s why presidents have advisors and support staff to help them on their difficult decisions.

Theatrics don’t count here. Donning a flak jacket and walking in Iraq for a few hours, at selected places and surrounded by heavy security, makes the news, but as far as understanding the overall problem is, to put it mildly, naïve.

Most of us have given up on the reasons for this unwarranted war by now and our main concern is to put an end to the sacrifice of our young people. Five years is more than enough and far more than other previous and more meaningful wars. Wasting more lives and money hoping that something will change, when very little has in these past five years, is asking too much from our service man and from all of us at home.

Only the will of the people of Iraq can make peace work in that country. As long as they continue battling each other, the best our presence can do is to contain their own sectarian violence. A sectarian violence that’s much older than our own country. And we’re going to solve this in a few more months or perhaps years?

If we stay, some of the people of Iraq will use our presence as a shield while others will fight our soldiers as invaders. If we leave, they may battle among themselves to decide by force who holds the power.
If it comes to that, I’d rather have the later. At least we’ll have another soldier coming home alive and another billion dollars that we can spend in our own battered economy.