Why?

Why?

The heartbreak is so ingrained in this photo that I can nearly taste it.  Trying to find the words to describe it brings tears to my eyes.  For an hour, I sit, trying different combination's of adjectives and metaphors, but a single word is all that I can generate:  Why?

Why, after so many years of violence, fear, death, and fighting does it not stop?  Why can they not finally come together as a people, and accept this opportunity at a fresh start for a bright future?  Why? Why?

***

The suicide bomber in Baghdad today hid amongst his peers for hours.  What was he thinking as he looked at their faces, desperate for work, not suspecting their lives would end so soon?  How could he have no pity for his brothers, joining the army to try to feed their families?  I can't imagine being filled with so much anger and hate.

The general in charge of the Iraqi military claims that "his army may not be ready to defend the nation until 2020."  How many more lives will be lost in the revolution before then?

And yet, I know that a US withdrawal is inevitable and necessary.  It is best that we leave the Iraqi's to figure out their own future.  We gave them a gift...a gift to choose their own destiny.  At some point, we must leave them to fulfill it.

Every nation has growing pains.   Our own have been many, and ugly.  When Iraqi's look back on their quest for freedom and liberty, they will probably see these suicide attacks in the same light as we see slavery;  a terrible patch in our history that, in overcoming it, brought us closer together as a nation.

***

Why?  Though we never may answer this question, hopefully someday we won't have to ask it anymore.

___
Update: 
Goodbye Iraq:  Last US combat brigade heads home
___
Update 8/21
U.S. troops to return only if Iraqi forces fail


It is going to be a tough road ahead for Iraqi.  There is no doubt about that.  Political instability, extremist attacks on police and military personnel, economic concerns.  The list is endless.

I think that General Odierno is being too optimistic.  I appreciate his awkward position, and his need to appear strong to the opposition.  But his statement that Iraqi security forces have been doing "so well for so long now," seems a bit ridiculous given the rise in civilian and Iraqi military/police casualties in the last couple of months.

I think that the Iraqi police force and army have been infiltrated by extremists waiting for an opportunity to cause death and destruction.  I think that the government, divided along religious lines, will have a hard time reconciling.  In fact, I foresee a civil war in Iraq.  The lack of economic opportunities (2 out of 10 Iraqi's can't find work), combined with an ineffective government, is going to lead to total chaos.

We should have planned for this.  Experts predicted that this would happen if we invaded Iraq.  It is essential that Americans NEVER FORGET how we got in this situation.  We need more than rumors of WMD to declare war on a nation.  Because Congress refused to wait for solid evidence of WMD's (that didn't exist, in case you have forgotten), the Iraqi's are being forced into a revolution that they are not prepared to fight.

Which brings me back to my original point.  None of this needed to happen.  Why?  Why?
__
Update:  8/27

Iraq 'bleeding antiquities' as instability continues

I found an article today linked onto Archaeology Magazine's website, but released by the BBC, that broke my heart.  It was about one of the forgotten casualties of the Iraq war:  ancient history.

These statistics are mind-blowing:

"In 2003 an estimated 15,000 artefacts were stolen from the Iraqi National Museum and only about a third have been returned.  But experts believe hundreds of thousands more have been looted from the country's archaeological sites that rank among the most important in the world. . . Large sites such as Isin and Umma now look like cratered moonscapes."

Reading statements like those quoted above bring tears to my eyes.  Iraqi's should be treasuring and protecting this shared national history.   Instead, they are desecrating and destroying it.

But how can we truly blame them?  The few available jobs have thousands of men applying for them.  Folks need to feed their families.

We should blame ourselves for this tragedy.  Again, I ask Why?

___
Update:  8/27

Iraq put on high alert ahead of expected bombing campaign

"The warning came two days after a wave of 20 bomb attacks struck 13 Iraqi cities, mostly targeting police. The bombs killed 48 and wounded at least 286."

Why?

___
9/1

Finally, I found a photo journal that contains some good news about Iraq.  The pictures are striking, but the captions downright enlightening.  They can't be copied and pasted, or I would quote them.  Once you get past the oft-repeated casualty counts on the first two slides, rarely heard good news is offered.

___
9/5
U.S. troops join Baghdad battle against militants

There are two sad things about this story.  Obviously, our combat mission in Iraq is not over.  Also troubling, and less apparent to the casual browser of headlines, is that the location of this latest attack is the same army headquarters where 61 Iraqi's were killed in a suicide attack less than two weeks ago.  Apparently, and not surprisingly, the Iraqi military did not learn to protect this strategic location.  In fact, two attackers not only made it into the building, but weren't even killed until after all of their ammunition had been expelled. 

This should serve as a wake up call to the few folks left in Washington who believe Iraq is prepared to be self-sufficient.  You can't switch from "dictatorship" with "government regulated economy" to "democracy" with "capitalism", overnight.  There is a huge void in the middle.

Imagine growing up speaking Spanish, and then being told to speak French.  Now.  You know a language, so why can't you speak them all?    It doesn't work like that.  Neither does the political and economic evolution of a country  Especially when there are religious extremist's involved.

We would be wiser to admit that we screwed up by invading Iraq in the first place.  At least then, we could learn from our mistakes.  As it stands, all Americans are being asked to keep up a facade, that is quickly fading into oblivion.  
___
10/2
Anti-American cleric vies for more power in Iraq (Yahoo, AP)

How bad does the Obama administration want a new government to form in Iraq?  Bad enough for al-Maliki to side with Muqtada al-Sadr?  The Shiite leader who took refuge in Iran for the past three years?

If things continue to progress as they have been, the US will have little choice.  In a strategic move, the Sadrists have aligned themselves with the Prime Minister, whose death they recently chanted for.  In doing so, they have assured themselves power in the new  Iraqi democracy, should al-Maliki win.

With over 30 seats in the Iraqi parliament, the  Sadrists rising power in Iraq is impossible to dispute.  What it will mean for the future of the fledgling democracy remains to be seen.  But if history is any indication, the US will not like the results. 
____
10/23/2010
WikiLeaks reveals thousands of previously unknown deaths  (CNN, by by the CNN wirestaf, 10/23/2010)

According to the anti-war group Iraq Body Count, the total number of civilians killed since the war began now stands at 122,000.  A vast majority of these deaths were the result of Iraqis killing other Iraqis.  Still, American hands are not free of blood.

"'We have not yet had an opportunity to study the leaked files in detail but they add to our concern that the U.S. authorities committed a serious breach of international law when they summarily handed over thousands of detainees to Iraqi security forces who, they knew, were continuing to torture and abuse detainees on a truly shocking scale,' said Malcolm Smart, Amnesty International's director for the Middle East and North Africa."
___
10/24
Iraqi court orders parliament back to work  (Yahoo News, by Lara Jakes, 10/24/2010)

It seems that the Iraqi government has learned well from its American mentors.  Just like politicians in the U.S., Iraqi parliamentarians are becoming quite adept at finding loopholes to keep them from working too hard. 

"After the June meeting, lawmakers agreed to leave the parliament session open but unattended — a technicality to allow more time to choose a new leadership and to put off choosing a new speaker or president."

Of course, they were getting paid very well for this time off.

"The absent parliamentarians are earning $22,500 a month in salary and housing allowance-far more than the average $800 monthly salary of an Iraqi professional. And that doesn't include a $90,000 stipend they were given after they were sworn in to cover expenses for the next four years."

Today, the Supreme Court of Iraq deemed the use of the "technicality" sited above illegal, saying the delay "violated the constitution."

Still, there is no guarantee lawmakers will abide by the courts ruling.  The political climate in Iraq is extremely tumultuous, and unexpected maneuvers are being created and employed regularly.  As usual, I will keep this post updated with the latest.
___
11/2
Blasts in Baghdad kill at least 63  (CNN, 11/2)

Tons of bombs exploded in Baghdad today.  "The blasts included 14 car bombs, two roadside bombs and mortar attacks in at least 17 neighborhoods of the capital, most of them in Shiite neighborhoods, police said."  Our military spokesman declared that such attacks are "typical of al Qaeda in Iraq."  Were these attacks typical before we invaded as well?
___
1/27/2011
Dozens die as car bomb targets Iraqi funeral

Iraq is like the drug war in Mexico: both topics contain only bad news.  I have avoided updated this post for the same reason I avoided the Drug War thread I have running; it is futile to report fatality rates every day with no end in sight.   The above linked article is just a sample of the daily snippets about the atrocities Iraqi terrorists are inflicting on their own people.  At this point, I only place half of the blame for all of these needless deaths on our invasion.
___
4/11/2011
Pentagon's second thoughts on Iraq withdrawl (MSNBC, by Robert Burns, 4/10/2011)

It should come as no surprise that campaign promises to have all American troops out of Iraq by then end of 2011 are not realistic.  For a multitude of reasons, including our own safety, it would be unwise to leave no military presence there. 

I am not upset about the broken promises.  I knew they could not be kept.  I am upset, however, that the Obama administration failed to learn from its mistakes. 

Our commitment in Libya started out as minimal, and has expanded to modest.  All the while, we have been hearing rhetoric about how quickly American forces will be done intervening there.  Why not tell the truth?  We don't know how long our help will be needed.  It would be foolish to not stand our ground and finish what we have started.  We will be done as soon as possible, but not before then.  That is what I would say if I were President.