Three Trillion Dollar War

The war in Iraq - a war we entered by mistake or mischief (take your pick) - and even after five years still escapes our feeble and inconsistent efforts to understand. Why are we still there? What happens if we leave? What happens if we stay? Is it worth the cost? What is the cost?

Our heads hurt, so we distract ourselves with Jeremiah Wright, Eliot Spitzer and anything else that works.

Senator McCain has said 100 years more in Iraq would be okay.

A war we have financed with trillions of borrowed dollars -- dubious finance on a scale the folks at Bear Sterns never imagined; a war in which 4,000 American Troops have died (so far) and many more have been grievously injured; a war that killed tens of thousands of Iraqis and has reduced much of their country to an evermore squalid and dangerous place for those who survive; a war that removed Saddam but opened Iraq to warlords and criminals, theocrats and terrorists, Iranian secret agents and Al Qaeda; a war that is stripping our military capacity and punishing the families of our volunteer soldiers and Marines; a war that defies us to keep count of the cost.

There are costs that can no longer be avoided, and then there are costs yet to be incurred. The former cannot be a justification for the latter. Those who propose to stay should offer their justifications. Tell us the war aims, the timelines for achieving them, and the costs to be incurred. Tell us who will ultimately bear the burden of these costs. Why are these facts still being kept from the American people - could it be because we no longer care?

It's true - I don't want to hear about it anymore.

A war that started without justification is unjustified still, and there is no light at the end of that tunnel.

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