Iraq?

If you were to go back over my archives for this blog, I think you would find that I have not once written about Iraq. Certainly, I don't remember writing about it. The problem is (and this may also be true regarding the rest of this blog), I have nothing original to say about it. So much has been said, so much is being said, that I'm not sure I have anything meaningful to add to the mix.

Nonetheless, today I've been thinking about the war in Iraq. One word comes to mind: quagmire. I know it's overused, abused, and probably a little trite, but is there a better word? I read articles like this and I conclude not. American soldiers are dying at a steady rate and Iraqis are being killed by the droves. What, pray tell, does our incompetent President and his incompetent cabinet plan to do about that? I have no clue and, I suspect, neither do they. As Paul Krugman points out in today's Times, efforts like last week's offensive on the Syrian border have the same look and feel of Vietnam's search-and-destroys. We might kill a few Arab fighter, but all evidence suggests that such efforts do little to harm the insurgency. What, then, do we do?

I don't have a clue, I don't have any prescriptions, but I'm quite sure we can't keep doing more of the same.