1 Boring Old Man

Lessons of War
The fighting in Iraq enters its fifth year.

Unfortunately, none of this provides bright guidelines to make the next decisions easier — not even those facing the nation right now in Iraq. It’s tempting to say that if it was wrong to go in, it must be wrong to stay in. But how Iraq evolves will fundamentally shape the region and deeply affect U.S. security. Walking away is likely to make a bad situation worse. A patient, sustained U.S. commitment, with gradually diminishing military forces, could still help Iraq to move in the right direction.

The sentence, "It’s tempting to say that if it was wrong to go in, it must be wrong to stay in" is where all of us are stuck. And this editorial concludes, "A patient, sustained U.S. commitment, with gradually diminishing military forces, could still help Iraq to move in the right direction." I think this conclusion is falling into a trap – a trap set by our own government.

What trap? The options are laid out in this format: Stay in, Get out. We all now know we should never have gone there in the first place. But when Bush talks about it, he says we must win, stay the course, support the troops, etc. What I think he means is occupy Iraq. My point is that we cannot answer this question while George W. Bush is in charge. We cannot trust him [period] to be acting in good faith. I think he wants us to occupy Iraq. The Iraqis think he wants to occupy Iraq. Many Americans think he wants to occupy Iraq. The rest of the world thinks he wants to occupy Iraq.

• Follow Bush and occupy Iraq.
• Leave them with the mess we created.