Photo Source: Clipart.com

It looks to me that Iraq is almost lost. Who am I to make such a statement when we are constantly told that everything is improving? I am just an average guy that is noticing what is going on over there. I don't have any inside news connections, I don't know any government officials that talk to me off the record or know any big businessmen that have been over there. I just see, hear and read the news. It is becoming so obvious that we are covering up more and more of the situation.

An example of how we are able to downplay things is readily available. Just ask anyone how many military have been killed and wounded and most people won't be able to tell you the amount. Why is this? The reason is very simple, it is not being featured in the press. During the Vietnam war, figures of wounded and killed were always available. Somehow the government has managed to keep these figures on the back burner. How was this accomplished? I can't really say for sure but it certainly took a lot of power to do. It seems that this administration is not lacking in that area.

I know a lot of people are not going to agree with what I am about to say next, but I believe that everyone is entitled to their own opinion. I think that one of the ways that the administration has kept the rich and powerful on it's side is with all the tax breaks for the wealthier segment of our population. I saw a general being interviewed on tv the other day and he admitted that a revolution in Iraq may be unavoidable. No one seems to mention the fact that much of this unrest is being fostered by terrorist elements and maybe even by other nations. Iraq has presented these people with a great opportunity. Remember that Iraq is an oil rich country besides everything else. We never seem to learn our lesson or maybe we are just too arrogant to pay any attention to the lessons of history.

Yugoslavia was a country that was in a similar situation before it had it's civil war. Tito was a strong leader that ruled the country without incident, then he died. The various factions such as the Serbs, Croats and others began to fight and eventually tore the country apart. This will always happen when a strong leader that ruled over a country that previously had ancient tribal animosities is taken out of the mix. I am not saying that Saddam Hussein was a good person, only that he was a strong leader and held the various peoples in check with his strong military. We have eliminated this check and freed up the different factions from retribution if they kill each other. Greedy neighbors are watching this and would love to get that oil. Add to the mix the terrorist armies that have infiltrated the country and you are left with almost a hopeless situation.

The world knew this was going to be a problem and that is why most other large countries failed to join us in the second invasion. They were right. We knew this could happen, but we thought that we were so smart and so powerful that we could take a handful of troops, 120,000 for an entire country, and be able to control it. This is a country with ancient hates I might add. We haven't even be able to put a functioning government in charge yet. We ask for elections and yet, if they don't turn out the way we want, we try to circumvent them, just look at the recent Palestinian elections.

Sometimes I wonder if we have anyone in the government that knows anything. How could we not see this coming? We have given the terrorists a golden opportunity to cause chaos and topple a government, that of Iraq. Why would we want to do this? Oh you could ask people like Rumsfeld and he might say that things are better than they look. This from a man that didn't even make sure that all our boys had body armour and that our vehicles were properly armored. But he didn't have to fight there so why would he care? When mothers scrapped up money to buy body armour, the type the police wear, and sent them to their sons, the military told them that if they wear it, they would face court marshall. Doesn't anyone think that this is strange. These people would rather look good at the expense of American lives than do the right thing.

Have we really written off Iraq? A recent comment by a retired general was that he now believes that maybe Iraq needs a civil war to get it's house in order. He went on further to state that we had one, like this was some sort of reason to show that an Iraqi civil war would be ok. The president sensing that people are getting tired of the war and that we are really losing, stated that he will send no more troops to the country. Will we leave this country in turmoil, with our tails between our legs as we did in Vietnam? The situation is starting to look more and more like the last days of that war, the main difference being that there is no big army coming from the north to take over, this is more like an infiltration. For all we know, this whole Sunni and Shite thing was started by the terrorists to ferment a war between them.

I have been wondering what could possibly be done to ease the situation? Jokingly I said to someone that maybe we should send Saddam Hussein back, but seriously what are our choices? I guess that maybe the country could be broken into three countries. One country would be Sunni, one would be Shite and the third would be for the Kurds. Turkey says they wouldn't let a Kurdish country exist on their border so I guess that wouldn't work. If we let another country take over Iraq than we would be giving them untold riches in oil and I don't believe that we would ever do this. Another option is to seal all the borders and let the Iraqis duke it out and deal with the winner. If we did this, we would be responsible for untold deaths, not a pleasant thought. We could try and put a strong leader in place but he doesn't have the military to enforce anything. Even if he had the military numbers, the military would be so infiltrated that it might be worthless. We could try and wipe out all the terrorists in the world but it is impossible.

Is there a solution here? I know that the very first thing we would have to do is change our foreign policy, which we will never do. It is amazing how one country can become so hated, even by many of our allies. We seem to offend everyone. We create treaties for trading with countries like Mexico and then we get into some sort of argument with them and our relations go into the deep freeze for over five years. We must learn that not everything can be our way 100%. Our views of world situations are not always correct. Look at Vietnam. We thought that the fall of Vietnam would lead to all of Asia becoming communist. We believed this was the goal of the North Vietnamese. When the war was over and some of the parties met many years later, a retired North Vietnamese General told us that we were entirely wrong. He said that all they wanted was independence for the entire country. Indeed, they now have good relations with us.

It is past time to rethink all of our policies and review all of our opinions on world matters.