Try to Remember: The Dilemma is a Human One

[marmar]

from the National Catholic Reporter Conversation Cafe, via CommonDreams:


Published on Monday, January 15, 2007 by National Catholic Reporter Conversation Cafe
Try to Remember: The Dilemma is a Human One
by Joan Chittister

Life is made up of hard decisions, some harder than others, they tell us. U.S. involvement in Iraq is one of those -- and it is getting harder by the day.
The mid-term elections of November, 2006, unclear on some issues, perhaps, were amazingly clear on another. The United States, voters told interviewers, is on the wrong course.

They wanted change. But wanting change and changing are two different things. The question now is how we'll change course. And to what?

That is no small problem.

That the country has become ever more impatient and intolerant of the U.S. invasion and drawn-out presence in Iraq is clear.

That we know how to stop it is not.

One option advised for Iraq by those who believe that military victory is both possible and necessary is, of course, simply to go on going on. It's a business-as-usual solution. But military forces find themselves in a situation where the security of Iraq, instead of getting better as time goes by, gets worse from news cycle to news cycle.

The problem with going on as usual is that it is not only a failed attempt at a solution -- surges have been tried before -- it is also part of the problem. As long as U.S. troops stay in Iraq where many do not want them, the Iraqis will never be safe.

A second option proposed to resolve the Iraqi situation is to simply cut our losses and get out. After all, thousands of U.S. soldiers have already been wounded or permanently disabled. But after five years of escalating failure in a contest once described as "a slam dunk", this proposal becomes a two-edged sword. .......(more)

The rest of the article is at: http://www.commondreams.org/views07/0115-22.htm