EDITORIAL IRAQ'S LAST CHANCE AMERICA BROKE IT AND MUST MAKE A FINAL EFFORT TO FIX IT.MAYBE it was a terrible mistake for America to invade in·vade v. in·vad·ed, in·vad·ing, in·vades v.tr. 1. To enter by force in order to conquer or pillage. 2. Iraq in the first place. Maybe we didn't send in enough troops to take control of a country so deeply divided among Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds. Maybe we did everything wrong and only made things worse. That's for history to decide. But what's important now is that America broke it, and America has to fix it -- or at least do everything possible to stabilize Iraq before bringing the troops home. That, in essence, is the situation. This isn't Bush's war. It is America's war. This is a democracy, and George W. Bush was elected president twice by American voters -- once after it was clear that his conduct of the war was failing. The culpability culpability (See: culpable) rests with the entire country. Americans have lost confidence in the president's Iraq policy, and for good reason. The invasion of Iraq was carried out with bad intelligence and little understanding of the situation on the ground. The public was misled and duped into supporting an invasion on shaky moral ground. Then, the mission was bungled bun·gle v. bun·gled, bun·gling, bun·gles v.intr. To work or act ineptly or inefficiently. v.tr. To handle badly; botch. See Synonyms at botch. n. -- and bungled again. Instead of becoming a democracy, post-invasion Iraq has devolved into a chaotic nightmare of sectarian violence Sectarian violence or sectarian strife is violence inspired by sectarianism, that is, between different sects of one particular mode of thought, not necessarily religious (e.g. . More than 3,000 American men and women have died as a result, as have tens of thousands of Iraqi men, women and children. Belatedly be·lat·ed adj. Having been delayed; done or sent too late: a belated birthday card. [be- + lated. , the president has cleaned the White House of the people responsible for this botched botch tr.v. botched, botch·ing, botch·es 1. To ruin through clumsiness. 2. To make or perform clumsily; bungle. 3. To repair or mend clumsily. n. 1. job of managing the war. Belatedly, he has admitted mistakes and acknowledged that the situation in Iraq is ``grave and deteriorating,'' as noted by the Iraq Study Group The Iraq Study group (ISG), also known as the Baker-Hamilton Commission,[1] was a ten-person bipartisan panel appointed on March 15, 2006, by the United States Congress, that was charged with assessing the situation in Iraq and the US-led Iraq War and making . Belatedly, the president has changed the goal from total victory to mere stability in Iraq. Belatedly, he is sending in more than 20,000 additional American troops to try to achieve that. This ``New Way Forward'' is America's last chance to salvage the situation in Iraq before pulling out, just as the country found itself doing in the morass that became the Vietnam War Vietnam War, conflict in Southeast Asia, primarily fought in South Vietnam between government forces aided by the United States and guerrilla forces aided by North Vietnam. . It is also the Iraqis' last chance to avoid an all-out civil war. By setting benchmarks and time frames for achieving them, Bush has made clear that America will not provide unlimited support. The Iraqi government must take control -- and do so quickly. At the end of the day, the fate of the Iraqi people is in their own hands. At this point, America has no alternative -- and none has been proposed -- to making one last effort to bring stability to Iraq. Whether we like it or not, America took on this mission as a nation. And as a nation, we cannot just walk away in good conscience without doing all that we could have done. |
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