War of Necessty

Everyone thinks they know what is happening in Iraq. Thinking is a luxury of the leisurely classes. In truth, Iraq is an event with many questions surrounding it. Even if America puts all its might into it, perhaps the country still goes into chaos. Perhaps if we pull out now, it will self-stabilize. There are a lot of maybes.

Now, I am going to offer a hypothetical which in its model negates the most important aspect of war, life. So I apologize if it is overly coarse. But I'd say there are so many maybes that it doesn't matter which way we go. It doesn't matter if we pull out, or if we stay, or if we have a timetable. Iraq as a country will continue to exist, its presence in the world will always be flagrant, but only vaguely capable of really affecting Western society. And so the question in Iraq is, more likely, how do we feel about our involvement there? If we are comfortable with it, then it works for us as a nation; we can pretend it really solves our security concerns. Or we can pull out, save a few billion dollars, and serve as an advisor to Iraq, while letting the country deal with its own growing pains.

The Iraqi war is fought and over. What remains is a belief that we can eliminate all opposition, that our national pride is on the line like in Vietnam so we must show our true might. But insurgents will be there for awhile, they see Iraq as a symbol. But more importantly insurgents have not shown themselves capable in almost every case of being able to win over the hearts of Iraqis and thus will relegate themselves to being outsiders. Our concerns are valid, but they are concerns manifested by our ego, and not our needs. What we need? To believe as a nation, and not just sectors of one, that what we are doing is for the best for our country. And polls, I believe, suggest something different.