A Quick Review: How goes the war?

"Ours is a world of nuclear giants and ethical infants. We know more about war than we know about peace, more about killing than we know about living. We have grasped the mystery of the atom and rejected the Sermon on the Mount." General Omar N. Bradley




Let's take a quick look at the last few years and see how far we have come.

In March, 2003, The USA invaded Iraq because Iraq, according to George Bush, was a "threat to peace". Almost 3 1/2 years later we find ourselves still fighting and no closer to peace. In fact the situation in Iraq, far from ever being winnable, is deteriorating into outright civil war between the ethnic and religious factions that populate that unfortunate country. The American led alliance has been falling apart since day one, and has failed to bring Iraq any closer to peace and democracy. The American supported government in Iraq has sided with Hezbollah, and wants to be allowed to put American troops on trial for war crimes committed against the Iraqi people...in Islamic courts. The occupation of Iraq will go on, the Americans will find themselves surrounded by antagonistic Iraqis from all sections of that shattered society, and their only accomplishment will have been to empower, rather than defeat, terrorism in the modern world. And the war goes on.


In Afghanistan, invaded by the West (led by the USA) in 2001, the war goes on. The Taliban, whose demise was widely reported and lauded by the Western invaders, is back with a vengeance. The war lords and crime syndicates still terrorize large parts of the country and deal in opium and arms. These groups, often on the payroll of the American military and intelligence organizations, offer the only real opposition to the resurgent Taliban and Al Qaida militias that are gaining control and popularity among the Afghan people. As in Iraq, the forces of occupation are finding themselves surrounded by an unhappy and antagonistic society. Also, as in Iraq, the people of the nation resent the apparent atrocities that are committed, without repercussion, against the civilian population. The American supported government finds itself having to chose between it's loyalty to it's own people and it's obligation to the foreign armies that shore it up. And the war goes on.

Meanwhile, Osama sits and bides his time. He may not be the all-powerful evil mastermind that he was purported to be by the propagandists that sold us the war, but he has managed to remain at large and a thorn in the side of George and Co. But they have much bigger fish to fry these days. Hezbollah, Hamas, Syria, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan (bigger nukes on the way), and even it's neighbors in Central and South America are beginning to look somewhat dangerous and "evil" to the hawks that sit atop the nation's capital.

. The world is far more dangerous a place than it was a few years ago. So much for "Mission Accomplished" George and his "war on terror"