An Exercise in Futility

I did not watch Bush’s address, because his announcement of a 5700 troop reduction has already been revealed. Bush will have his reduction, Congress will do nothing, and the war will continue on regardless of what the President or his Democratic opponents say tonight. I also know that the US will probably leave Iraq (Kurdistan excepted) within two years, regardless of whoever wins in November, and whatever they are saying now. No candidate will be willing to assume that political liability for very long. Iraq will be weak and dominated by its neighbors, and then another strongman will inevitably emerge. Give the nation a century, their oil will dwindle into insignificance, and Iraq, with some luck, will become more prosperous and democratic. This war is so uncontrollable, so fluid, that no one can change its course. Iraq's anarchy, and the President's stubbornness have combined to produce a situation with a dynamic as alterable as a natural disaster. Iraq will run its bloody course. I only hope that 10 years from now, we have the sense of moral obligation to spend as much on foreign aid to Iraq as we did on their occupation. A paragraph is an insult to a nation we have so wronged, but this war has exhausted the army, the United States, and the world. The time for talk has passed. We will hear a lot of rhetoric in the coming days, but it will only be noise to cover the incredible, insurmountable inertia which has overtaken both parties in Wahsington on this issue.