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by Dennis Jett
Despite all the rhetoric and resolutions emanating from Washington, two fundamental facts about the war in Iraq won't change. The killing will continue, but not all of it has to.
Iraqis will continue to die in large numbers regardless of what the United States does. The troop surge will shift the violence to other locations or cause the combatants to go underground for a time, but will do nothing to resolve the reasons for the fighting. The ignorance, arrogance and incompetence of the American architects of the invasion and its aftermath have created the perfect storm of factors that made the current civil war possible and inevitable for years to come. The deepening of the sectarian divide, the struggle over who gets to steal the oil revenue and the proxy fight for influence being waged by other countries in the region all ensure that peace will not break out soon.
The war is lost
The politicians in Washington, whether they support the war or oppose it, do not want to end it at all costs, however. Those who pass legislation calling for a fixed timetable for withdrawing American troops do so secure in the knowledge that it will never be enacted. They would not pass a bill that would actually take effect because they are not about to remove the Iraqi albatross from around President Bush's neck and hang it around their own.
Those political leaders who say they support the war know it is lost,
but cannot admit it. Their constituents cannot accept the idea of
defeat. What has been won, how or why does not matter. In the Vince
Lombardi school of international relations, winning is the only thing.
So, for them, there is no accepting any outcome called defeat even
though invading Iraq has not made us safer and debilitates us more
every day. Instead they have to stay the course hoping something they
can call victory will miraculously appear.
And so the conflict continues, but it doesn't have to, at least for the
Americans. While Iraqis will fight and die for some time to come, the
Americans can withdraw now.
Chaos in the region
At one point not so long ago, the war was sold to the voters with the
claim that creating a democracy in Iraq would be easy and would spread
across the region. Now the excuse for having to stay is that the chaos
in Iraq will engulf the region. Both these variations of the domino
theory are wrong, and the damage we are doing to our national security
by staying is far greater than we would do by getting out.
To make our exit all we really need to do is select a date to celebrate
our victory in Iraq. Opponents of the war will not have to worry about
assuming responsibility for the war or any impact on the verdict of
history. President Bush is sure that historians 50 years from now will
look back on him as a visionary leader. With $500 billion squandered
already and more than that yet to be spent repairing the damage to our
armed forces, the true cost of Mr. Bush's trillion-dollar disaster will
escape no historian.
Those politicians who profess to support the war should also be content
with a declaration of victory. By asserting that we won there would be
time for many voters to have forgotten the war by the next election.
The declaration can't unfortunately come immediately, however, since
the recent surge can't be expected to show results for a few more
months. By saying we won then, no more terrorists would be emboldened
and no one would doubt American resolve.
Where's the good news?
Some might question whether proclaiming victory should not be driven by
the situation on the ground. That has never affected administration
policy or pronouncements in the past, so why should it matter now?
Besides the announcement is the perfect response to all those who
complain that the good news from Iraq is not being reported.
To make it even more patriotic and above questioning, the date for V-I
Day could be set for the Fourth of July. So let's support our troops
and our politicians by bringing the former home this summer and letting
the latter find a way out as well.
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