Today’s biggest Middle East problem:

we are still there.

What has contributed to this problem:

  1. At the end of World War I the French and the British reneged on their promises to the Arabic allies. Although the Arabic allies supported the British advance against the Turkish armies of the Ottoman Empire with Colonel Lawrence under the guarantee of autonomy, the Treaty of Versailles failed to live up to their promise and required in article 434 “to recognize the new States in their frontier as there laid down” as designed by the British and French negotiators. This established that the West was not to be trusted.
  2. Saddam Hussein was an unpredictable dictator whose prior acts made the possibility that he represented a real and true threat possible.
  3. Our intelligence and/or our analysis of our intelligence was flawed similar to the intelligence that our government had concerning the loss of the USS Maine prior to the Spanish-American war.
  4. We failed to realize that the people of Iraq would be so uneducated about Americans and the American goals having only had the controlled propaganda about America and Americans from their dictator Saddam Hussein.
  5. Postwar occupational planning which proved incorrect.

What should Congress do:

  1. Allow our generals to conduct and direct our troops.
  2. Support our troops by supplying appropriate supplies, equipment, and training.
  3. Support our troops when they return with the appropriate educational support, return into society support, and total health care.
  4. Provide continued pressure in the political arena to achieve a political solution and the appropriate return of our troops.

Iraq is similar to a cancer. When first approached, we felt secure that the appropriate approach was the surgical removal of what was believed to be a localized tumor. However, we soon found ourselves faced with a disease that had metastasized and was not contained. We have found ourselves struggling with one chemotherapeutic approach after another. We are presently breathing a moment of relief having achieved some remission with our last chemotherapy. It will be some time before we understand if this remission will last or if another metastasis will return. Indeed, there may come a time in which a cure is claimed but as likely (which many believe has already reached) that we must give up on the patient and stop all our interventions. For now, I believe that we must listen to the doctor (General) who is at the bedside.