Before President Bush's speech tonight on Wolf Blitzer's CNN preview, they played clips from each of the last four speeches given on Iraq. Every single one of them said essentially the same thing: We've made mistakes, we're learning to adapt, and we promise to do better. The men and women of the U.S. military can do just about anything if we give them enough troops and money and time. That I have no doubt about.
But it's not about a military "solution." There is no problem that currently exists in Iraq that can be stopped by sheer force alone. Eventually, the Iraqis have to deal with their own problems. The U.S. presence is certainly buying a sense of security in limited places, but it's temporary. As soon as we shift the troops to another position, the bad guys crawl out of their holes and make trouble again. We could stay there forever playing Whack-a-Mole and never win.
Yes, we caused a horrible humanitarian crisis. There are more than 4 million Iraqi refugees displaced because of the war. We've killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians. We've sacrificed thousands of our best and brightest.
Enough! Get our troops out of there. We have to admit we were wrong, and do our best to help those we've displaced. Our strategy has failed. It's time to pull the trigger. Stop the madness.
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