Bad Days in Baghdad

Alas, eleven members of our armed forces lost their lives in the Bush Administration’s Iraq War yesterday. I think the United States needs to leave Iraq. I thought it was madness to invade in the first place.

My brother was supposed to be in Iraq right now with the 10th Mountain Division, but he was discharged from the Army for health reasons (after serving this county in Afghanistan). I'm so happy about that.

Congressman Murtha is right that a “beyond the horizon” presence should suffice to fulfill our obligations to give strategic support to the Iraqi army we’ve had several years to train and equip. In fact, we should continue to train the Iraqis, support them with money and expertise and fund civil reconstruction projects.

Perhaps, with competent civilian and military leadership, it would be wise for the U.S. to “stay the course” in Iraq. However, the current administration’s record in Iraq – from the WMD lies to Abu Ghraib torture, from under-armored Humvees to no-bid crony contracts – suggests that these people will never be capable of learning from mistakes or seeing the world from outside the distorted lens of ideology.

As a result, more bloodshed and chaos (and U.S. domestic division) will be in the offing, rather than the flowering of Iraqi democracy we’ve been promised for years now. From what I’ve seen, the odds of a full-fledged Sunni versus Shiite civil war are far higher than those of a peaceful democracy.

This war has been a strategic, diplomatic and moral catastrophe for our nation. A disgrace. And hundreds upon hundreds of American families have paid the ultimate cost for this miscalculation and mismanagement. It’s time to go.