On Midterms and Iraq

Yeah, it's been a while...

Well, we got what we asked for. The Dems have taken over the House and the Senate. Pelosi's ready to call for troop withdrawal and investigate Halliburton. Hillary stocks her war chest; Barak continues with the Hamlet routine (to run or not to run). Rummy's searching the help want-ads (not for long, I assume) and one can only hope that someone's taken Foley's cell phone away. But what do we really have?

IRAQ

Can we simply pull a Korea and declare victory and walk away? Obviously, something has to change. The hawks claim that if we withdraw now, the power vacuum will create another terrorist breeding ground (a.k.a. Afghanistan) and Al Quieda (sic.) stronghold. Well, at what point do we stay involved in what has clearly become a civil war? How long can we wait for the Iraqi security forces to step up and take control?

The Iraqi government is like the 35 year-old guy you know who still lives in his parents basement. Everyone wants to know why he won't leave. The answer is simple: he doesn't have to! He's got a roof over his head, a live in cook and maid and cheap rent. He won't leave until he's forced to take action. Good ole Mom has to stop cooking, cleaning and hike up the rent. Only then will the human sponge abandon his basement lair. Until we stop doing the dirty work in Iraq, the Iraqis will never step up and take charge. Why should they? Let the Americans spend all the money on the hardware and supplies and take on the dangerous missions. Dumb like a fox, those Iraqis.

Give'em a time table and tell'em it's time to step up and take control of your own country. Sure violence will increase, but we'll give our hard working troops some light at the end of the tunnel and extricate ourselves from a bad situation.

We went in to overthrow Saddam, eliminate WMD's and create a democracy. Saddam's set to swing soon and there were no WMD's in the first place. Two out of three is going to have to be good enough. Democracy's a slow process which must come from within. Nobody dragged the Colonists into the war with Britain in 1776 -- we chose it ourselves. The Iraqis must choose their own form of government. We tried to force the Vietnamese into democracy and look what happened.

The war may have been started on pretense, but it must end with resolve. Set a date and stick to it.