Thursday, Lafayette, Indiana

This week we acknowledge a grim anniversary. It was five years ago that the infamous war in Iraq began. The mood of the country deteriorated from initial support to growing skepticism and finally outright disillusionment with the venture. The staggering costs in lives and dollars has steadily mounted with little evidence that the Iraqis are stepping up to take over their own national destiny.

The war is now the longest in our history, surpassing the two World Wars of the 20th Century. And because it is a civil insurgency rooted in religious fanaticism there is no end in sight. The only hope is to control the violence and quell the passions. Soldiers can do the former, but it is religious leaders who must do the latter. And we are becoming more impatient with the soldiers being Americans instead of Iraqis. And as long as the country feels invaded and occupied, there is little chance that the Islamic religious leaders will have much success redirecting murderous passions of their followers.

Regardless of anyone’s opinion about the legitimacy of the war in Iraq, it should be very clear that the execution of the war has been at least questionable if not tragically inept. John McCain, famously supportive of the surge in Iraq, is on record harshly criticizing the early approach to the endeavor, lambasting Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Cheney for their approach to the invasion as simply too little to be effective. And here is the Vice President, when questioned by a reporter about the opinion of the American people overwhelmingly opposed to the war, snips back, “So?”

Say w…w…w…what!?

Without a draft that invests the total population in the endeavor of a nation’s war, with no real demand for the rest of us to feel the sacrifice and pain of international combat, we have the dubious luxury to ignore the whole matter and go on with our lives. It’s a war fought by a few heroes sent into combat by chicken hawks who spare their own lives and the safety of their own children.

If we go to war, we are all in or we should go in at all

If we go in, we do so with everything to end it swiftly

Five years of a piece meal effort

Osama Bin Laden is alive & communicating from Afghanistan

It’s just disgraceful!