The fat lady’s not warming up in the Iraqi wings anymore; she’s in full voice under the hot spotlights onstage. The entire planet can hear her wailing song… so if the war is lost, why are we still there?
Some folks are still hoping to find a genie in a lamp — someone to grant a wish and make it all better:
The cause of that failure is rooted in an Iraqi political culture that makes it as yet impossible for enough of the political leadership to act with a sense of national consciousness. We should nonetheless make a last effort to change the composition of the government and assemble a new one composed of those — Kurds, moderate Sunnis, secular Shiites and some of the religious Shiites — who might be capable of reaching a grand political settlement.
If wishes were fishes…
Others see the situation being overwhelmed by confusion and partisanship:
In the cacophony of competing plans about how to deal with Iraq, one reality now appears clear: despite the Democrats’ victory this month in an election viewed as a referendum on the war, the idea of a rapid American troop withdrawal is fast receding as a viable option.
So many options, so little time…
The Saudis, though, know exactly why we’re letting that song go on — why we can’t possibly move to the final coda yet:
Both the Sunni insurgents and the Shiite death squads are to blame for the current bloodshed in Iraq. But while both sides share responsibility, Iraqi Shiites don’t run the risk of being exterminated in a civil war, which the Sunnis clearly do. Since approximately 65 percent of Iraq’s population is Shiite, the Sunni Arabs, who make up a mere 15 to 20 percent, would have a hard time surviving any full-blown ethnic cleansing campaign.
The reason we’re still in Iraq, folks, is really pretty straightforward at this point. If we leave — when we leave — full-on ethnic cleansing is likely to churn in our wake. Genocide.
You thought we were having national pangs of conscience now? Just wait until that lady’s done singing.