Here are some further thoughts from my soldier in Afghanistan. Personal note, his father was Scottish (tight with money).
"A lot of these 'conservatives' are NeoCons. A major tenant of conservatism is fiscal responsibility. This war is a black hole for resources. There is little in the way of responsibility or accountability. We are throwing money at this problem. The same way money is thrown at every other problem. Most conservatives hate how we waste money on govt programs yet this govt program gets a pass. And again, we don't have a clear objective. What are we spending this money on? Why? Will expenditure X yield result Y? No one can answer this. This is to say nothing of the waste that is inherent to all govt programs in general and the military in particular. Yet, none of this seems obvious to the 'conservatives' who support this war.
Now this is not to say that I don't support this war or the concept of war in general. Some people need to be killed. My problem is that I really don't know what I am supposed to be supporting. I have no idea what we are trying to accomplish here.
We are trying to accomplish democracy there.
Its pretty simple and the success is quite evident.
There have been three democratic elections in the past year in Iraq. There was increasing public participation in each election. The first election had more than 8 million voters-- higher voter participation than in the US. Those voters faced the threat of death and were not armed like our soldiers.
In the same year that Europeans failed to pass a Constitution, the Coalition guided parliamentary construction of a Constitution and an election which passed it. Would I be wrong in suggesting that Iraq and its coalition partners are more successful than their European counterparts?
At what point do naysayers such as yourself have a burden to show evidence that the mission is failing? If this is failure around the world, I would like to see a lot more of it.
There are democratic revolutions spreading around the globe in places as diverse as Ukraine, Georgia, and Lebannon. These things affecting the lives of millions of people are the result of American soldiers putting their lives on the line for this good cause.