I Am Sorry Paul But What Is The Solution

Putting everything aside I think that the primary purpose of Bush sending troops to Iraq was to bring a semblance of stability to the middle east which was being threatened by Saddam and his goal of becoming the Field Marshall of all the armed forces in the middle east and his piece de resistance would have been an all out assault on Isreal and the start of a full scale WWIII. In retrospect if the UN has had any balls they would have taken out Saddam during Desert Storm.

There is no question that "stability" to many in the west means a constant supply of oil and no matter how you cut out many of the "get out of iraq" crowd would change their minds about Bush if they had to walk to the 7-11 or sweat in the summer or freeze in the winter.

Bottom line until King Goar and Courtyard Clown Suzuki accomplish their save the world song and dance we are stuck in the middle east.......

War in Iraq far from being over
By PAUL BERTON

It was a shameless publicity stunt. Four years ago today, U.S. President George W. Bush swept onto the deck of the USS Abraham Lincoln in a Navy S-3B Viking, jumped out of the cockpit and declared "mission accomplished" in Iraq.

Saddam's statue had been toppled in Baghdad, and the man himself was on the run. Military experts, government officials and media commentators declared victory in the cradle of civilization.

At that time, little more than 100 U.S. soldiers had died. Many observers still believed weapons of mass destruction existed in Iraq. Some Iraqis said now they "could start living." Despite popular belief, al-Qaida was not -- yet -- operating in Iraq.

Four years later, more than 3,000 U.S. soldiers are dead, and some 24,000 wounded. Bush administration claims that Iraq harboured weapons of mass destruction have been revealed as outright lies, swallowed unquestioningly by the media. The war costs U.S. taxpayers $200 million a day and $1 trillion so far.

And terrorism, in Iraq and around the world, is fueled like never before by propaganda and the impression Americans are occupiers not liberators, bullies not saviours.

The heroic work of U.S. soldiers in Iraq is rendered suspect by the abuse and torture at Abu Ghraib prison and elsewhere.

Iraq is a mess. Infrastructure is devastated. Death and injury are commonplace. Doctors have fled. Westerners cower behind barricades. Iraqis fear for their lives. Corruption is rampant. Sectarian violence is out of control. Terrorism flourishes. Democracy, if ever possible, is today a ridiculous notion.

Civil war is inevitable -- if not already tragically apparent.

And the "mission" whatever it may once have been, will never be "accomplished."

Most ominously, this conflict threatens to draw in the region, destabilizing the entire Middle East.

Democrats, despite insisting U.S. soldiers be brought home, should realize with the same mounting horror as everyone else there is but one sad reality: the U.S. cannot stay, and it cannot leave.

The Sept. 11 attackers have finally accomplished their mission.

Ignore what any expert says. There are no solutions, and only one age-old lesson: war is hell.