Cleaning up the mess in Iraq (4/13/04)

Historians will endlessly debate how America found itself in its current predicament in Iraq.

The real question is, what do we do now?

A convincing case can be made that the Iraq invasion was the wrong move at the wrong time, that it was based upon faulty intelligence which had been interpreted with a political bias.

But it's one thing to admit we've made a wrong turn, it's very much another to figure out how to support those whose lives are at risk while figuring out the next step.

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry, his party's presumptive nominee, has to wonder at times why he's running for what looks like the world's most difficult job. And he's in the complicated position of being critical of how we got where we are, without wanting to undercut those at risk, and with no control over how the situation might change between now and election day.

From a political standpoint, it's tough to imagine a worse situation.

Unless, perhaps, it's the situation faced by President Bush.

Every move, every utterance, and every decision from the president will have consequences for his political future; yet if he's doing his job properly he ought to be oblivious to those consequences and do what he believes to be right for the country, for its troops, and for the people of Iraq. In short, it's his mess and he needs to deal with it.

And mess it is indeed.

Since the autumn of 2002, senior foreign policy experts —- like Sen. Richard Lugar, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee — pressed the administration for detailed plans on how to handle post-war Iraq.

By now, it's obvious to any serious observer that there were no plans.

So, what do we do now?

Columnist Tom Friedman has made the simple but profound argument that Iraq is ours now. We broke it, and we have to fix it.

But as the job of repair and occupation drags on, the question will inevitably arise: Was all this worth the trouble? — J.R.[[In-content Ad]]