It’s six years later now.
I wonder how many years will pass until the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001 will no longer be an automatic subject for editorial pages and columnists all over the nation, and indeed the world.
How long will the current conflict between Islamic extremists and the rest of the world continue?
Will one side win a decisive victory, or will a long-simmering low-level campaign continue for decades, with no clear resolution?
Will it be a matter of a few more years, or a few more generations?
On Labor Day weekend I found an old sign out back among the junk around the house, while pruning bushes and doing some long postponed yard work.
“Win the War” proclaimed the sign. On the second line, a little smaller: “Victory in Iraq.“
I examined it to find out where it came from. I found a little tag with a phone number and an e-mail address, and in parentheses, proceeds to USO.
Where it came from I don’t know, but the question that popped in my mind was whether I should stick it in the front yard, and what the result might be?
Would folks holler encouragement at me when I’m mowing the lawn, or would derisive catcalls be the result?
It seems we’ve reached the point that favoring a strategy that will lead to victory in Iraq is no longer considered mainstream. Presidential hopeful John McCain, for one, has fallen into disfavor, partly because of his unwavering support for the war.
When the generals have finished testifying before Congress this week the question from the Democrats, and many Republicans, too, most likely will have been not how to win the war in Iraq, but how quick can we get out of there?
How we got to such a sad place is the subject of endless debate and recrimination, but what is so appalling is that a mere six years after fanatics attacked us on our home soil, so many Americans think we can retreat and all will be okay.
Granted, Saddam Hussein didn’t plot the attacks, but the current battle against the enemy centers on the country he once ruled.
If we don’t “win,“ in Iraq, however victory might be defined, this writer believes we will someday come to regard it as a critical mistake, prompted as much by politics as national security concerns.
Should I put the sign up in the yard? Should we try to win the war?
