Making it all worthwhile.

I'll make this brief: I was pissed when Bush decided to invade Iraq, and even more pissed when it came to me -- a Virginia National Guardsman -- to do the dirty work.  But I did my job.  Ever since I've been plagued by the idea that perhaps we could have brought some good out of a very bad decision had we only pursued intelligent strategies and tactics from day one.  Of course, we did no such thing, and until very recently it did not appear that we would ever approach our mission conscientiously or intellectually.  And so I fell in with the staged-withdrawal crowd, advocating for hard time-lines and all of that.  It broke my heart.

Now I'm a bit perplexed: the "surge" (the "success" of which we're all a bit hesitant to acknowledge), the population displacements, the failure of al-Qaeda in Iraq to maintain support among the people with whom they live and whose lives they endanger by their presence, and maybe even the possibility of American withdrawal looming in the election politics, have all worked to spur the most sincere effort at cooperative statebuilding we've seen since 2003.  Such statebuilding can only continue -- now that it is finally going on -- in a safe situation; that safety will be compromised if we leave.

After this roller-coaster -- which I admit has taken quite a toll on my conscience -- I am left asking myself again: "shouldn't we stay as long as necessary to make all of this sacrifice worth something?"  And I ask that question with full knowledge that it's the same question that has dominated Republican sophistry for the past three years.

But shouldn't we guarantee security as long as the Iraqis are willing to make good use of it?  Don't we owe it to them?  And to ourselves?  If I knew that the private sector fraud, waste, and abuse that characterized Bremer's Coalition Provisional Authority and set the tone for 2003-2007 were finally under control (e.g. Halliburton's recent loss of no-bid contractor privilege); if I knew that strategists like Gen. Petraeus would remain in place; if I knew that something would be done from within the Iraqi administration to quell the tide of displaced persons; if I knew that we could somehow re-budget the unsupportable expense of the war ($200 billion a year not adjusted for interest/inflation?); if I knew our troops could handle the taxing deployment schedule for another five years; if I knew all of these things, I would say "let's stay the course." 

But I'll never know any of these things for sure.  Nor will any President or Congress[wo]man.  That's why we put our trust in our national leadership, and that's why I'm so concerned about who will become our next President.