Types and Shadows

I don't pretend to understand it all. I especially won't pretend that I have some special insight that makes me right, and I'm about to unveil an insight that will fix all of our problems - and I mean ALL of our problems - Americans and Iraqis, Right and Left, Rich and Poor, etc., etc., etc...

Because I'm not. There are a lot of people out there smarter than me (and that takes some real humility to admit that one), who have been thinking about this longer than I have. Go read Instapundit, or Kos, or whoever your political blogger d'jour is for that kind of thing.

Having said that, at least I can respond with a thought or two in response. Tonight I was reading something that reminded me of something in the Book of Mormon. For those of you playing our home game, Alma 46-51 are some of (IMHO) the most interesting chapters in the BoM (and not just for the actions of Teancum in chap 51, although he is, admittedly, one of my favorite people in the book). Here, you have Moroni, a general appointed to safeguard and secure the homeland of his people from enemy attack. He finds that amongst the people are those who honestly want the other side to win (for whatever reason, usually because it means that they expect that they will come into power when the new guy comes in).
To me, that sounds a lot like Kennedy claiming that Iraq is Bush's Vietnam. It sounds like Richard Clarke saying that Bush didn't make Al Qaeda a priority until after 9/11. It sounds like bloggers throughout the sphere nitpicking and nitpicking.
Here's an idea. Let's finish Iraq. Let's allow them to set up a democracy. Let's give them the time and space they need to come up with a representative government, whatever that ultimately looks like. And let's sign a treaty with that fledgling country that says that anyone that screws with them, screws with us. Yeah, let's make Iraq one of our democratic homeboys. They need time and space to do that. They need to decide for themselves what that government needs to look like. They can't spare the time and energy to do that if there's rioting, bombings, pushes for power, coups, etc. So we need to give them that time and space - and the only way to do that is through occupation. Not forever, but for long enough for them to get their feet under them. That might not be in time for the end of June (I'd be VERY surprised if it did happen by then). With their feet under them, and a good neighbor, I think Iraq can go a long way.