Today marks the
fifth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. To simply say that it's been disastrous wouldn't do the conflict credit and it's worth noting that almost everything the
doubters and
spoil-sports warned of before the war began has essentially come true.
That isn't just to say, We told you so: there were no weapons of mass destruction,
Al Qaeda and "other extremists" have found a haven where there previously was none, the country is mired in a sectarian civil war and due to America's strained resources, the
Taliban enjoy resurgent support in Afghanistan.
Even many who supported the war didn't imagine it would be prosecuted so incompetently. As a result, America now stands to fail both its missions after these calamitous five years. Just as he went in without an occupation plan,
Bush has no plan to achieve the "victory" he assures us is still possible.
In his speech this morning marking the anniversary, he said more of the same, emphasizing the importance of his morally and strategically reprehensible holding pattern. "The surge," he said "has opened the door to a major strategic victory in the broader war on terror." That may be true, but it's a door that needn't have been sought out in the first place.
After five years of war, the president has articulated no clear vision for what he hopes to achieve in Iraq other than in the broadest terms. He has set no victory conditions. Five years in, it's completely unclear why we went, what we're there for, or how we'll get out.
