Iraq Versus the American Attention Span

The title pretty much says it all. I keep seeing people recant their pro-war stance and expect some sort of kudos for it. Don't they have the guts to stick it out? Didn't they know it would take a while?

Let me explain what I have thought since 9/11. Afghanistan was harboring terrorists, and Saddam Hussein was ignoring the terms we handed him the last time. I don't see anything wrong with either invasion. I do, however, wonder if Saudi Arabia would have been a better starting point. The Wahabists are there, as are the main sacred cities of Islam. It's much more destructive to the fundamentalist mindset to see major religious sites in our hands than it is to see a secular tyrant like Saddam get overthrown.

I do, however, see a lot wrong with the occupation. The attempt to create a new "democracy" out of a large nation, one with at least three distinct groups, ignores history. The United States started with 13 small colonies. The 13 had to negotiate with each other until agreements were made. Instead of working from the ground up, we are stuck with a top-down government that is rapidly being disenfranchised by more legitimate leadership at a lower level. Case in point: Kurdistan. The Kurds are far better off than the rest of the country and would like to declare independence from the rest of Iraq, but since the U.S. would prefer not to aggravate Turkey, the Kurdish leadership is proposing a federation with the rest of Iraq.

This is the problem I have with the pro-war people turned doves out there: for one brief moment, the Kurds have their own state, but if we leave chances are they will get crushed. So, do me a favor and at least outline a plan to keep those who cooperated with us alive. No, let's not relocate them to Detroit. I think they like where they are living, they just need some solid support from us.

The American attention span, and our willingness to take a short term approach to global affairs is exactly what got us into this mess in the first place. We consistently fight wars and then go home to contemplate our navels without ever grasping the meaning of the conflict in the first place. Can we stop causing ourselves trouble?