The difference is that Italy, although in the 60′s and 70′s dealt with terrorism, did not have 20 to 30 percent of its population in open insurrection against it. In Iraq, not only is the insurgency pretty large, and competent, but that government also has to deal with violent disputes between al Sadr’s Mahdi army and the badr Organization. Add to that, the Kurds in the north, who have recently openly stated that they are growing weary with the impasse in Baghdad and will not long pursue to retake Kirkuk through a peaceful political process and you have far more than just a political problem in a parliamentary system.

Justin is right,

Unless this changes, and rapidly (unlikely given the month-long recess the Iraqi parliament just took), any gains our military gains on the ground and pays for in blood, will not matter. I’m not saying withdraw now, but we should begin thinking of a new strategy given the lack of commitment we’ve received from the Iraqis.

I’m torn on this matter. I would like to see funding completely cut on the war entirely. But like any American I know that by completely cutting funds to the war we would be putting our soldiers in danger, but then again, they are already in danger.

The way I see it–America is not going to “win” this war. The idea that we even use the word “win” in situations like this is disturbing to say the least.

On the other hand, I can understand the difficulty Iraqis are having in forming a “democracy.” We must remember our own democracy and how long and hard it was to create. It took many years and a great deal of bloodshed. Expecting a society that has
a completely different culture and priorities than that of our own to cobble together a “working” democracy in the middle of hell isn’t very fair.

This is why “preemptive” wars aren’t wise. We have a hell of a mess on our hands. Just wait and see the historian account of this war 20 years from now, with hindsight I guarantee Bush’s cute little war is going to be viewed in anything but a derisive lens. But then again, you still have “muddy boot SOldiers” to this day that claim Vietnam was the “good fight” and an admirable cause, if we would have only stuck it out a little bit longer, we could have beat them communist and “saved” our South Vietnamese freedom loving brethren from themselves. Unfortunately, we only had to kill 2 million of them to “save” them.

And today? We are trading with them. Remember? the enemy? I guess they weren’t the “devils” we made them out to be, after all, they are good enough to trade with right? LOL! can you sense the logic? It’s overwhelming.