It's been too long

Between lessons plans and weekend relaxation, I'll try and blog a bit more. A stark, frightening, and dead-on editorial from Weekly Standard, laying out the stakes in Iraq and the Bush Administration's sudden multilateralism. The Standard's conclusion: It is an illusion to imagine that this mess can be handed off to someone else and we can go on about our business. That option does not exist. The choices are stark: Either the United States does what it takes to succeed in Iraq, or we lose in Iraq. And if we lose, we will leave behind us not blue helmets but radicalism and chaos, a haven for terrorists, and a perception of American weakness and lack of resolve in the Middle East and reckless blundering around the world. That is the abyss we may be staring into if we do not shift course now. What's left unsaid in the editorial is the political worries at the White House. Does Karl Rove & Co. want daily bombings and American deaths on the television news, amidst Democratic tv ads with Howard Dean saying "bring the boys home?" Assuming the economy will improve in 2004 (it already is), Bush wants to remove the Iraq issue as much as possible, with the simple calculation of less American troops = less American deaths. But, oh, the risk to the original mission.

Like I said, by next summer, the economy will be a Republican and not a Democratic issue. Everything (save the lagging indicator, unemployment) is pointing up, up, up.

And yet another cogent, calm, and direct article by VD Hanson, stepping back to see what has been accomplished since 9/11, what the stakes are today, and what needs to be done. Reassuring and daunting.