We won the battle but have we lost the war (in Iraq)?

More and more, Iraq is looking like the battle we won but the war we lost. Despite the Bush Administrations’ protests to the contrary, it’s all too evident that they had no adequate plan for reconstructing the country. The near chaos that now reigns can only be answered by more troops; and ultimately, if order cannot be restored—and the longer the current situation drags on the harder it will be—even an all-out occupation of the country will not prove to be enough. It will become the American Afghanistan. In the end, there will be a very good chance that the government that ultimately takes power in Iraq will not be democratic but Islamic Fundamentalist and more of an imminent threat to the US than Hussein ever was.

If the current unrest in the country is fueled by Hussein loyalists who are fighting to regain power as many in our government claim, then the U.S.’ failure to capture Hussein was a great strategic mistake. The President attempted to distract voters from that failure by saying that only regime change was important. The continued killing of US troops is showing that he was practicing an exercise in delusion if not deception. The US needs to make finding Hussein one of their top priorities, no matter what it takes to do it. To ignore his influence, as Bush has tried to do, only continues the mistaken policies we have been exercising.

I am not surprised at all at the revelations that the President is suspected of manipulating CIA intelligence data to justify his invasion of Iraq. I have felt all along—and have stated here—that Bush was operating from personal motivations than a level-headed sense of what was good for the country or the world. The question now becomes whether there will be enough proof of that for the issue to be raised to a Constitutional level. Certainly, it deserves every bit as much scrutiny as Bill Clinton’s sexual improprieties got. But it is unlikely to be raised to that level until the continued deaths of American soldiers becomes so painful that Congress is forced to intercede. How many young men will die before that happens?