March 08, 2007 - Rewind to March 16, 2003.  Vice President Dick Cheney appeared on Meet The Press and said, "I think things have gotten so bad inside Iraq, from the standpoint of the Iraqi people, my belief is we will, in fact, be greeted as liberators. . . . I think it will go relatively quickly . . . (in) weeks rather than months." 

Now fast forward to March 2007.  The retired Army Vice-Chief of Staff Jack Keane has said of Iraq, “You have to protect the people long enough to get economic assistance to them and change their attitude and change their behavior. You cannot do that in weeks. It takes months to do that.”  The National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq issued in February says, “The Iraqi Security Forces, particularly the Iraqi police, will be hard pressed in the next 12 to 18 months to execute increased security responsibilities, and particularly to operate independently against Shia militias with success.” A confidential assessment of the situation in Iraq by Lt. General Raymond T. Odierno the commander of US forces in Iraq recommended that the increased troop levels called for in the President’s “surge” would have to be maintained through at least February 2008.

This juxtaposition of quotes demonstrates the pattern of miscalculation, misapprehension, and misinformation that has characterized the Administration’s handling of the war in Iraq since before combat started and which continues today.  This civil war has claimed hundreds of Iraqi lives since President Bush read the election returns and decided that there needed to be a review of the war plan.  This month alone 25 Americans have died in the crossfire and it is only the eighth of the month.  How many helicopters have been shot down since the first of the year?  How many more soldiers, tanks, humvees, and aircraft will the United States lose in the next 12 to 18 months? 

John McCain has been vilified for saying that 3,000 American lives have been wasted in Iraq.  To his credit he has refused to apologize for saying so.  What benefit has America realized from the sacrifice of those lives?  Has there been any improvement in the situation in Iraq since George landed on the carrier to announce that the mission had been accomplished?  Those lives have been wasted and Senator McCain, like the President, wants to waste that many more.  They both believe that there is a solution to the puzzle of Iraq and that the answer is to put more American lives on the line.  The Senator believes that President Bush erred when he listened to Don Rumsfeld and failed to commit sufficient troops to the mission in the first place.  He may be right but we cannot roll the clock back to 2002.  We are stuck with the consequences of that decision and there are not do overs in history. The best that we can do is to leave Iraq to the Iraqis; to respect their sovereign right to determine their own future; and husband our resources to apply where we can make a difference – the Pakistan-Afghan border.  There too the mission will take months and not weeks but there is a defined enemy, a definable mission, and a chance of success.