I’ve been reading quite a bit of Andrew Sullivan lately … in fact I’ve been trying to read the writings of many of those I have not agreed with. He was one I found hard to read about a year ago. Pat Buchanan is someone I almost never agree with. I, as a slightly liberal-leaning libertarian with a healthy dose of fiscal conservatism, had very little in common with those on the extreme right.
But, over the past few months, I’ve seen more and more of the hard-core conservative writers come to the same conclusions. There are so many examples of how badly we’ve managed this attempt at nation-building, I’ll leave it to real bloggers to note those with detail. The aspect I had not considered was looking at the nation’s current attempt to rebuild Iraq through the lens of previous attempts.
[ How Do We Get Out? (Pat Buchanan) ]
Eighteen months after we occupied Germany, the nation was de-Nazified and pacified. Eighteen months after we occupied Iraq, Islamic fundamentalism is on the rise and, as Colin Powell now concedes, “We are fighting an intense insurgency [and] …. it’s getting worse. 
That the number of enemy and incidence of attacks have multiplied fourfold in a year forces us to one conclusion: we are losing this war. For the guerrilla wins if he does not lose, and the Iraqi insurgents are not losing.
There has been so much failure, it overshadows any successes we’ve had. Sure, Libya has seen the light. Sure, Saddam is out. But those achievements pale beside the current state of disaster we find ourselves in. And we cannot just get out. We have to make it work. This country’s integrity (Abu Ghraib put the last nail in the coffin as far as the rest of the world is concerned) is directly tied to making Iraq work. If it fails, we’re history. I am completely confident that the massive ineptitude and incompetence displayed by our leadership show no signs of changing. I am only slightly confident that a change in leadership will make any difference at all. Which is worse? I still don’t know.
