This first post will be a short one just to get the blog started. As I don't expect this thing to really take off anytime soon, brevity probably won't be either punished or awarded.
Yesterday the Baker Commission Report was released to the Public. It's left me with the firm position that our war in Iraq can neither be won or lost by American forces. It is the Iraqi people who must decide how they want their nation to turn out. They can't seem to agree on much of anything, all are vying for control and making power plays, and we're stuck in the middle paying a very high cost for being their referee. Framing the debate as a "are we winning or losing?" argument ignores the situation as it stands. Without a massive new troop commitment, we don't have the ability to seriously influence the situation. We should stop talking about whether we are winning or losing because quite frankly it doesn't matter. Until Iraq decides what sort of nation it wants to be, we're just bystanders on their little journey to democracy.
New resources should be put into treating the disease that is causing our ills, not just the symptoms. Other than Iraq, if you ask any insurgent or anti-American fighter in the Middle East why he is fighting against us, the answer you will get is Israel. Our support for Israel has caused us severe damage, monetarily, politically, and in lives. While I don't think we should ever withdraw support from Israel, I do think that instead of throwing a half trillion dollars at Iraq, we should spend a fraction of that money and those resources to solve the problem of Palestine and Israel. Creating a stable Palestinian state, and ending the conflict there, will remove a huge barrier to peace between the MidEast and the West, and will be a major PR coup for the US, at a time when a major PR coup is badly needed.
Let's put out the flames we can, and try to contain the ones we can't, but bickering over whether we are winning or losing isn't going to solve the problem. It's time we all opened our eyes and located the real source of the problem over there: Iraqis. They don't know what they want, and several years of us telling them that we know what they want hasn't worked. We can try and help guide them, but we can't decide for them what type of country they will have. That much, should be painfully obvious by now. It's time to reevaluate this war, and what role we should be playing in it.
