Are We There Yet?

Thinking about Iraq

How will we know when we can declare victory and go home? What has to happen? That's hard to pin down, because our goal keeps changing (of necessity) as the reason we invaded Iraq in the first place keeps changing. There weren't any weapons of mass destruction, so we don't have to stay until we find some. All the things the President's advisors predicted so confidently -- we'd be greeted as liberators, the Iraqi people would say "Thanks! We'll take it from here!", the insurgency would respect our authoratah and fade away -- not gonna happen. I think the latest version of our mission is to "bring stability to the region", but even getting back to the degree of stability that existed before we invaded is probably a stretch at this point.

Back when we first went in, I used to say, "You know, it will take years before Iraq will be free of terrorism." People didn't want to hear it, but honestly, it just seemed like common sense. After all, look at Israel. It's a mature country, having been around more than half a century. It has the best army in the world, and that army is totally focused on preserving the country's safety. Service is mandatory for all citizens, so just about everyone in the country who's 18 or older has been through basic training. This is a country that has its shit together. And yet they still get the occasional suicide bomber on the bus or outside the restaurant or waiting in line at the dance club. "Look at Israel," I'd say, "and you see the absolute best-case scenario for Iraq, after fifty or sixty years, if we're lucky." And that was at the start of the war.

So where does that leave us? You might well arsk. We often hear the Pottery Barn theory: we broke it, we bought it. I suppose the "bring stability" idea falls into that category: we at least make a valiant attempt to clean things up, and to train the Iraqi military. But how far do we go, how long do we stay? How many of our sons' and daughters' lives do we sacrifice? How much of our tax money do we pay Halliburton to do whatever it is they're doing over there? How much is enough; how much is too much?