Opaque Lucidity

Four

The news stories are telling us today that the war in Iraq is four years old. In that time, more than 3,200 American soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines have died there. This does not include the deaths suffered by our allies, which add hundreds to that total. Some argue that this is a lower body count than Americans saw on the first day of the Normandy invasion or at Iwo Jima or the Chosin Reservoir. But we do not measure things in cold numbers, regardless of how convenient it might be. The mother of the son who came home draped in a flag does not care about what happened in previous wars and no amount of pride and patriotism can replace what will always be missing in her heart.

Our Congress seeks to make the war in Iraq right by leaving the nation to its own devices. Senator Kerry said on Sunday that the Iraqi Army needs to defend its own country starting right now. Nowhere did the Senator mention the fact that it was the United States and her allies who invaded Iraq in the first place. WE broke it, not the new Iraqi Army.

We don't talk much about national morality, but it's time we did. To leave Iraq now or in 2008 as some suggest would be, put simply, immoral. We owe the Iraqi people something, namely a stable place they can call their own. I don't know how to achieve this and I don't know how long it will take. As I've said before, I believe the insurgency in Iraq could be defeated in short order, but the cost of such a victory would probably be more than our soft populace could stomach. So until a better way comes along, young Americans will continue to die. This is the price. I'm not paying it and you're probably not paying it, either. But better men than me are sacrificing every day so we can live our lives a world away and sacrifice nothing.

No, there were no weapons of mass destruction and even if there was, they were long gone before the invasion. Four years on, it doesn't matter. What DOES matter is what happens from this day forward. I don't necessarily believe that the terrorists will "follow us home" if we leave Iraq. What I do believe is that we broke a nation for several good reasons and now we must rebuild it. Anything less will leave a permanent stain on the world's only superpower.