President Bush Missing the Point On Iraq

CNN:

President Bush marked the fifth anniversary of the Iraq war on Wednesday by calling the debate over the conflict "understandable" but insisting that a continued U.S. presence there is crucial.

"The answers are clear to me," Bush said in a speech at the Pentagon five years from the day the war began in 2003.

"Removing Saddam Hussein from power was the right decision, and this is a fight America can and must win."

Almost 4,000 American troops have died in the war, a painful toll that Bush acknowledged.

"No one would argue that this war has not come at a high cost in lives and treasure, but those costs are necessary when we consider the cost of a strategic victory for our enemies in Iraq," the president said.

Listen, forget the crazy loons long protesting for an end to the war. They're antics are tired and frankly they bore me. The surge is clearly working and as a longstanding, working democracy we have a moral responsibility to ensure that Iraq has a future, but even the few sane-thinking liberals out there make a just point when they ask about the Iraqi Government's responsibility to itself. We've been in Iraq for 5 years now and only a few number of 18 benchmarks have been met, at that rate we'll be in Iraq for another 20-25 years . . . at least (or is that already the plan?). And that's where President Bush misses the boat. As the initiator of this war, his administration needs to continue with war on terror, but also make it a point in pressuring the Maliki administration to reach its goals, instead of trying to do everything for them.