Yet, we cannot stay there indefinitely (people, especially at windsofchange.net , try to make the ridiculous comparison to the US staying in Germany or Japan for 50 years and that as a natural extension to Iraq and the ME in general , whereas others on that same website have the idea that it would be better to preemptively nuke Iran before it’s too late, or at least execute all those of muslim persuasion somehow ) nor do the Iraqis want us to stay there indefinitely, nor can we afford to do so, nor do the American people want us to do so….

As China continues to slowly challenge America, as Iran makes buddies of likeable guys like Chavez, as the opium poppies continue to flourish in Afghanistan and NATO continues to f* it up, as we can continue to chug conflict oil, as the neocons continue to cover up themselves from scandle to scandle, the world is racing in a million directions, and we are continually throwing money and troops to a place that doesn’t care (because they think they are being occupied and don’t really care that we are teaching them dental hygiene and giving them our old DCUs and m16s) .

We broke it and we can’t fix it. And I didn’t vote for Bush either time, I never bought into “mission accomplished” or at “last throes” once. And I am in the military and have been downrange (unlike the armchair generals at windsofchange.net)

Iraq had nothing to do with Al-qaeda and the WTC or WMD. Mr. Rumsfeld had more to do with Saddam than Osama see http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/ .

Iraq is not a battle in the “war on terror” as much as the backwoods of Idaho where some recluse is buidling a fertilizer bomb for a federal building or in los angeles where the next john walker lindh is learning on the internet how to poison the water supply.

but the problem now is that the final outcome is really out of our hands.

Exactly.

We liberated the Iraqi people. Now it’s up to them to determine how they want their country to look. We could have shaped it a few years ago, but that time has passed. The best thing now is to supply the government with the means to keep the peace and get out ASAP.

Besides, it’s not as though the insurgents have had much trouble procuring weapons from other quarters anyway. Drop in the bucket.

About a year ago during my short-lived experiment with blogging*, I noted that victory in Iraq was close, but defeat was even closer. I still think that’s true, but the problem now is that the final outcome is really out of our hands. The coalition forces have been reduced to playing traffic cop in the middle of a demolition derby – not exactly the best use of American blood and treasure. If the Iraqis are ready to try to sink or swim on their own, let’s let them try.

* I’m considering moving into blog fiction in the near future. I have a cautionary tale in mind that points up how fragile the sort of republican democracy we’re trying to export to places like Iraq can be, even in America itself. I’m starting to think this would be a better vehicle for what I’d like to say to the world than a traditional blog. Needless to say, I’ll keep you posted.