Stuck In Iraq

Well Kerry said it and despite the source it seems more true with each passing day - we are stuck in Iraq. First, it is doubtful that we are getting enough of the news from Iraq but the level of violence is clearly worse now than at anytime in the past. The violence is not random, rather it appears to be calculated to drive the civil war to ever higher levels. There are apparently at least two campaigns of violence there which seem to be more problematic than Al Quaeda-- Sunnis against Shiites, and Shiites perhaps for national dominance against Sunnis and to a lesser extent against Kurds. Yet, our government wishes to revisit the theme of fighting terrorists over there rather than over here-- seems like that denial thing at work again. In Vietnam, the historical revision suggested that the so-called enemy there was not ideology but ordinary people fighting an invader. In Iraq, we clearly are an invader. Clearly, we will be blamed for much of the destruction. Clearly, this nearly incredible loss of life has the potential to foster a real brand of terrorism for there has been an enormous loss of life, even the more conservative estimates exceed 100,000. This is a horribly excessive price to pay to take down a government as weak as the Saddam-Baathists.
The costs to the US in the range of 200 Billion for next year for Afghan-Iraq( 600 Millions per day) is also a horrible use of national resources--most of us would rather see that money educate all of our children or universal healthcare or to create new industries here. It's like a menu that offers Chicken soup or the e coli special--and somehow we don't choose the soup.