Stay The Course? What Course?

Doesn't "Stay The Course" invoke images of resolve, strength, and intent? Shouldn't we be thinking - "Yeah, we're strong enough to see this through and we don't run from a fight." ?

America really does WANT to stay the course, but we need to actually HAVE a course if we're going to stay it. We're the ones who threw open the saloon doors, hitched up our belts and flashed our guns, sidled up to the bar and slapped the old man called Afghanistan in the face. We cleaned up his act then asked if anyone else wanted some of that action. No one volunteered so we found Iraq cowering in the corner and started in on him. Now, everyone in the bar knew that Afghan-man was a bad guy and the town was better off without his noise. Yes, sir, the whole town was on board with that. However, since we still had rounds in the chamber we were still itching to fight. We didn't have the patience to indict the little man, but what the heck, he was a bad guy once before, what's changed.

Okay, enough of the silly analogy. What I'm getting at is that we, as a nation, aren't running from the very real and very necessary fight against terrorism. What we do need is a plan with courses of action and an anticipated end state. We can no longer just plunge headlong into the breach without some sort of realistic plan, based in the real world, and a timeline to accomplish it. It's not time to cut and run. It is time to think, logic, reason, and maybe even listen from time to time. Here's my plan. Turn Iraq over to the corrupt Iraqi government, its corrupt police force, its corrupt legal system, and its corrupt military. If the insurgents really just want "the occupiers to leave," then the liberals will finally see that sectarian violence is indeed sectarian, but it's not an American issue. If Arabs want to keep killing each other, well, have at it. Our work is done and Iraq needs to stand on its own, right now.


If I Only Had A Brain