Cleaning House

I’m finding it interesting.

(Unreferenced pronouns near the beginning of written works are a tool that can be used for drawing the reader into the work.)

I’ve noted an interesting shift in attitudes towards the war in Iraq. Back in March public opinion appeared to be for the war, people believed that it was the right thing to do. They also apparently believed the administration that this war would “pay for itself in oil revenues” and would last “months not years.”

Now people seem to be shifting away from supporting the war, having seen the actual costs. (both human and fiscal) As a whole we seem to have forgotten what my mother tried unsuccessfully to teach me: “Don’t start something you’re not going to finish.”

While I have gotten better at following my mom’s advice, I also recognize its one thing to start cleaning the bathroom, but a totally different task to set about remodeling the whole bathroom. Cleaning the bathroom requires little forethought as to the effort required to finish it; Remodeling the bathroom takes a substantially greater effort, as such requires deliberate and detailed planning.

We were told that we’d have a country to clean, not a country to remodel. But, now that we’re stuck remodeling a country without the explicitly detailed planning needed to do it, as such people are wanting to bail. Anyone who has remodeled the sole bathroom in a house knows the problem is that the bathroom is the only essential room. (You can get takeout and forget about the kitchen, you can watch TV in the bedroom, and sleep in the family room, you cannot take a shower or a crap in any of the other rooms; you need a functioning bathroom.)

So we’re stuck with an gutted non-functioning bathroom and the country is starting to lean against properly completing the remodel. As any handyman of the house knows starting to do something and not completing it will have significant costs, that will likely outweigh the costs of completing the remodel.

We’re stuck in Iraq. While leaving Saddam Hussein in power would at the very least ensured a stable and controlled country, leaving Iraq at this moment would be a significant detriment to world wide security. America has succeeded in producing, nation state in the state of failure, exactly what the administration identified as a breeding ground for terrorism.

We must finish the remodel of Iraq that we have started, even if it requires that we must deploy even more of our young women and men into harm’s way. This includes the possibility of instituting a program of conscription, if absolutely necessary.

I’m not a supporter of military conscription, the war in Iraq, or placing our young men and women in harm’s way; I am a supporter of finishing what we start, unfortunately the costs are quite high.