My Iraq analogy for the day:
If you went to a doctor and he told you you needed surgery but the rest of the doctors in the hospital said they thought maybe they should run some more tests, then your doctor botched the surgery and told you later that maybe you didn’t need the procedure after all, would trust him to handle the fix to the problem? Or even to define what the problem was?
People who think that now that the US has messed up Iraq (and who don’t have some other reason for thinking the US should maintain a presence there) that we have to “fix” what we broke for the poor Iraqis are deluding themselves.
Congress is in Republican control for at least another seventeen months. It’ll be three-and-a-half years before a Democrat could potentially move into the White House. Staying in Iraq means the same people who started the war there and who have mishandled the occupation for two-plus years will be in charge of
- deciding what strategies to employ against the insurgency,
- controlling reconstruction of water, sanitation, and power,
- overseeing military supply contracts,
- guiding the Iraqi government,
- deciding what in Iraq is and isn’t a threat to US security,
- and maintaining the safety of the Iraqi people
just as they have been since March 2003. I suppose, if you think they’ve been doing a good job, you might be inclined to let them keep practicing. But apparently, people like Joe Biden and his ilk think that another seventeen months (at a minimum) of Bush in charge is a small price for the Iraqis and the military to pay in order for them to look strong.