Iraq persists...

I can barely remember life prior to American involvement in Iraq. And yet, the war continues to be the most prevalent news generator (and rightly so). The war has been taxing on our manpower and, for many, disturbing to our impression of the government.

Reading Dima's post, I found many of the same Iraq related opinions and issues that I have observed in the United States. It seems that the constant war images that invade our news and entertainment are numbing to many and scalding to others. The jury on our success in Iraq is still out, but I'm not sure that Bush will ever be considered the country's ultimate liberator. That task will fall within the next administration's realm. The "spectacle" of the toppling of Saddam's statue was certainly filled with media hype and was primarily symbolic. It will be the political and diplomatic moves that create great change.

Jeff Huber points to the unknown of our timeline for troop involvement in the country. The reality that we are only now working on setting up a hard schedule for pulling out our troops is disturbing. How long have we been in Iraq without a plan? I understand that we can't just harshly remove ourselves, but we need to at least have a plan to prevent what appears to be our present "blank check" situation.

Of course, troops are still needed. Violence persists as fighting amongst religious groups continues as explained by Healing Iraq both in photos and in posts. How can we pull out troops when such hideous acts as honor killings and their subsequent retaliations persist. Is this our cultural war to fight? Leaving such an act free to occur should eliminate the clean conscious of our government and provide reason for involvement focused on stability progress.