MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

Four years ago George Bush stood on the deck of an aircraft carrier and announced to the world that the mission in Iraq was accomplished. Today, it is dreadfully obvious that whatever that mission was, if it even abstractly resembles bringing peace and democracy to Iraq, it will not be accomplished in our lifetime. The mission has been reduced to "Lets try something else and HOPE that works". That's right, we are reduced to trying an alleged new strategy and waiting to see if it works. That is not the stuff that brilliant military strategies are made of...HOPE?

We are sending 21,000 additional troops into a country of 26 million engulfed in a civil war and HOPE for some, as yet undefined, success. While we're doing that HOPE for world peace and an end to hunger. The odds of seeing the fulfillment of this HOPE is probably about the same as peace and democracy in Iraq.

The Iraq debacle is merely proving to be what it was destined to be. The worst strategic military error in US History by a wide margin. There was never a chance it would succeed and I would argue that there was never a clear definition of success from day one. More Iraqis and Americans will be maimed and die while we HOPE that a miracle happens. It is a sad truth that our President will never accept the reality of what he has created in Iraq.

Eventually, our troops will leave and the gates of hell will be completely opened in Iraq. When that will happen is in question but it is a certainty at some point. Then, rather than accept out responsibility as a nation, the guilty parties will begin the search for scapegoats.