Peace of mind over Iraq

Balancing the hindsight mismanagements of the war in Iraq with the National Interest objectives is easier than one might think. In fact, the balance is a guide to what must happen in the future, both near and far.

All arm-chair generals and statesmen to include the 535 Congressional public servants and their staffs have their own strong feelings about how the war has been managed. “If only they had listened to me” is a famous inside the beltway phrase. Now the many mismanagement arguments are being used as a reason to quit the National Interests reasons for being there. It sounds like because the whole campaign could have been better managed, and most think it could have been, then that is a good reason to quit and leave Iraq. Even domestic security practices are fair play. To many, this sounds like throwing out the baby with the dirty bath water.

Our National Interest reasons for conquering Iraq are all selfish. This in itself is nothing to apologize for. In fact, we would have bragged about it more in another time. Our National Interest reasons for trying to win the peace in Iraq is part of a greater scheme to change the Arab Middle East to our advantage and our security. This was a big chunk to chew on, too big it seems in hindsight. Along the way, even the Persians and their atomic schemes came in. And others will have their own versions of our National Security Interest, to include we don’t have any National Security Interest. Fortunately, they are a small minority of our population of mostly loyal people.

We as a Nation are at a friction point due to domestic politics. What trumps? Is it the mismanagement that led to weakened faith in the present leaders; or is it our National Interests, albeit selfish. The first leads to quitting the campaign of winning the peace in Iraq; the second says stay the course, knock heads, and fight the good fight in our selfish National Interests.