IRAQ: FRAMING THE ISSUE

I have watched with fascination as America has struggled with the apparent failure of the war in Iraq. More than four years have passed since we invaded that country, and young Americans, as well as Iraqis are being killed and mutilated daily. Have we lost the war? Can we win the war? These questions rattle around Congress and the world with no one asking the right questions because no one has framed the issue correctly.

After the U.S. invasion of Iraq we won the war and defeated the 5th largest standing army in the world within about 2 weeks. Let's be clear on this; WE WON THE WAR. The American military performed brilliantly and did everything they were called upon to do, and more. Unfortunately, we have not been able to win the peace.

We are not fighting a four year war in Iraq. We are an occupying force. We are losing lives and spending billions of dollars not because of a failed battle plan, but because of political miscalculation. There was never a clear goal, at the accomplishment of which victory could be declared. There was never a clear exit strategy after dismantling the Iraqi military and police at a time when we had no one to replace them. It was "political negligence" on a scale so grand as to border on being criminal.

We can leave Iraq whenever we want. We would not be "cutting and running" because we won the war. We have stayed for years to assist the Iraqi people to get a government back on track, and begin to fight their own battles, but now find ourselves in the middle of a religious war, raging for centuries, that has nothing to do with us. The American Civil War was the bloodiest conflict ever fought on American soil, with more than 50,000 soldiers killed in the battle of Gettysburg alone. Can anyone imagine how many foreign soldiers would have been killed if someone had the temerity to interject themselves into our Civil War?

It was wrong to invade a country that had never attacked the United States. It was wrong to dismantle their infrastructure with nothing to replace it. It is wrong to continue to excuse these actions by political mendacity. Most of all, it is wrong to ask brave American men and women to die and be maimed in the continuing and open ended support of a misguided occupation. It is wrong to leave their families alone, their civilian jobs undone, their bills unpaid and, worst of all, the country they love and are dying to protect unable to defend itself against real aggression because most of our troops are being sent to the slaughter in Baghdad.

The war has been over for four years. Let's bring the troops home for the honor and rest they deserve, or admit we are an imperial power, declare Iraq a U.S. territory, and send a half million troops to quell the insurrection. Either way, the time to act is NOW!