What does win mean?

Iraq has become a debacle.  Bush sent in our armed forces because Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.  The weapons never appeared.  There mission, unalike Afghanistan, wasn’t really well planned out.
Now there are thousands of men and women who lost their lives and others who have come back with a very different set of options for how they were going to live their lives and I am not sure for what.

Yesterday, Ted Kennedy gave a speech where he quoted a speech given by Lyndon Johnson during the Vietnam war.  Same rhetoric as we are hearing today.  We must win and have victory.  In the end, he left office and left the mess to be cleaned up by the next President.  If Kennedy had not shared whose speech that was, you would have thought it was George Bush.  Interesting how history repeats itself regardless of the lessons to be learned.

Now we are sending another 20,000 troops into Iraq leaving the United States vulnerable since we don’t have enough troops.  But the one thing that I just don’t understand is what does it mean to win in Iraq?  What does victory mean?  Is there a clear cut definition before we pull out?  A working Government?  Elections in place?  A police force in place?  Willing to agree to disagree among the factions? 

To me, that is what I just don’t get.  How can Bush send Americans to war just to declare victory without defining victory. 

One of my biggest pet peeves are people who are incapable of saying "I made a mistake" or "It was my fault" or "I don’t get it, can you explain that to me".  Being honest about your shortcomings is what makes the man or woman.  Being so arrogant to ignore the reality of the situation, ignore mistakes made, not listening to the majority of the people (including your own party and friends) is beyond what anyone would expect from a leader of the free world. 

As an adult, I am disgusted but for my kids to see how the President of our country is looked at among his peers, other countries around the world and being entangled in a war that has no end in sight is beyond disheartening.

Comments (Archived):

  1. Robert J. Ed

    Well put, and appreciated.

  2. Elizabeth H.

    I really can’t believe that Bush was re-elected, but now I am wondering how he has not been impeached.

  3. Elizabeth H.

    Did you read the Vanity Fair vignette about Bush? Not very complimentary. Basically, an old friend from middle school said that Bush was the kind of kid that quit the game if he was not winning, and had problems listening to others. Hmmmm…