Failure May Be the Only Option

I am not surprised that top military commanders do not want Democrats to impose a timeline for withdrawal from Iraq. And honestly, I don't blame them. Right now, to them, withdrawal looks like failure on their part. It's too soon for withdrawal from the battlefield without a clear victory for these commanders, most of whom are Vietnam veterans.

Mostly it won't matter how often they will be told that they and their men fought honorably; and that it was the politicians who sent them on a fool's errand. I know how military people think - and they all want to complete the mission. They all want to win.

Unfortunately for them and unfortunately for the new Congressional leadership, there may be no way for us to win.

While American commanders have suggested that civil war is possible in Iraq, many leaders, experts and ordinary people in Baghdad and around the Middle East say it is already underway, and that the real worry ahead is that the conflict will destroy the flimsy Iraqi state and draw in surrounding countries.

Whether the U.S. military departs Iraq sooner or later, the United States will be hard-pressed to leave behind a country that does not threaten U.S. interests and regional peace, according to U.S. and Arab analysts and political observers.

"We're not talking about just a full-scale civil war. This would be a failed-state situation with fighting among various groups," growing into regional conflict, Joost Hiltermann, Middle East project director for the International Crisis Group, said by telephone from Amman, Jordan.

So not only have the neo-cons and their puppet President lied their way into a war, not only have they bungled the execution of that war, not only have they plundered the nation's treasury to the tune of $8 billion per month, not only... that list could go on and on. But not only have they done all of that, but they've put us into a no-win situation with the possibility that we could wind up being responsible for igniting a regional conflict that could kill millions and keep the region in a state of war for decades.

And when we wind up withdrawing at some point in the near future - and we will have to withdraw - our politicians will have burdened our military once more with the albatross of an unwinnable war and a peace with no honor.