July 15, 2010--Back to Iraq

Remind me again why we invaded Iraq and thus far have seen sacrificed 4730 American troops?

Because of weapon of mass destruction? We didn't find any of these and thus, assuming that was a valid reason to invade, after not finding any, we could have said so and brought our troops home after just a few months.

Then we said we were there to fight al Qaeda. But, again, we didn't find any al Qaeda operatives there and thus, after discovering that, we could have said so and brought our young people home. Also after only a few months.

Then, as I recall, we said we were there to overthrow Saddam Hussein, a brutal dictator, and that we would, after we toppled him, which took just a few days, remain there to rebuild the country we had destroyed in the process and stay to oversee the establishment of an at least seemingly democratic government.

Assuming it made sense for a western, predominately Christian country to nation-build in that Islamic region, how, after nearly eight years of invading and occupying that benighted country, is that working out?

There were, we recall, those remakable elections where the people who voted emerged from the polling booths with their index fingers painted with indelible purple ink. Broadly smiling. It felt as if, perhaps, it was working out after all.

But now that we are in the process of withrawing our troops (according to the linked story from the New York Times we are down to 70,000 from a high of 165,000) and after the most recent election, the one that was supposed to launch a post-American coalition government that would lead a democratic Iraq into the future, four months after the results of the election were known, how are things going?

It would appear not very well.

The new Parliament, with the members elected still deadlocked over who to name as prime minister, has met just once, a month ago, and the session lasted only 18 minutes. And the situation shows no signs of resolution.

So Iraq remains leaderless, we continue to withdraw our troops (there will be 50,00 on the ground there by the end of next month), and conditions for Iraqis remain abysmal. After all our efforts to rebuilt and the expenditure of unimaginable hundreds of billions of dollars, in most parts of Baghdad, where midday temperatures routinely reach 110 degrees, electricity is available just two hours a day.

Not a pretty picture.