What is the Barometer of Success I ask you? What is the measure of success in Iraq that means we can come home? How do we know when done is done?
When I grew up my parents had a barometer of success but also a barometer of failure; they knew when to push when I was being successful and went to BITE when I was failing and in the end I managed to make life on my own - Why aren't we setting these very same pressure in Iraq?
If you ask me the insurgency feeds off the weakness of a nation to scared to fend for its own. If any of what our administration speaks of is true then 250,000 troops should be more than enough people to regain security and civility in that country. When you shelter your kids too much they grow a dependency, when you provide the only security they grow a dependency and add up all of the above and they live in fear of change and fear of responsibility. That isn't nation building, that isn't raising the bar, and that isn't being respectful to Iraqi's.
I ask, why don't we strategically pull out? Why don't we set goals? Why don't we make a plan for America's future as well as that of Iraq?
I often get responses that "cut and run" would cause civil war, or cause it to become a terrorist heaven, or cause the government to collapse or cause this and that. How is it that all of the above is happening WHILE we are there yet it will get worse if we leave? How do we know if leaving won't FIX anything since we haven't even tried? We haven't even discussed the positive side of what we can do, only the negatives of what we think will happen. We haven't even set the barometer to know when the good weather will arrive or if we are simply cranking up the heat.
I ask you to write your congressman, write your senator and ask them what the barometer of success is. Ask them when we will know that we are done and HOW they will take the steps necessary to get the job done. Ask them how staying the course fixes the problems they say will arise if we leave, ask them how they measure the success of our heroes and when the job is done.
Don't take anything but a plan for an answer. Ask your congressman and senator to give you a strategy since they won't propose one on the house or senate floor. Ask them to explain why they don't have to tell you, of whom they are to serve, why they can't bring our brothers and sisters home. Don't take RHETORIC FOR AN ANSWER. If they give you the run-around ask them HOW THEY KNOW why proposing alternate plans or phasing out troops will be a failure when they can't even measure what will be a success?
Ask questions America, don't take rhetoric or no for an answer. Send your responses to your local papers, news stations, your neighbors, talk about the war, ask questions about the war and ask them Why they want to stay and die without even regards to doing what is right. Ask them why for listening to the rhetoric for 3 years "staying the course" will be any better than trying something else for a change.
If they don't listen, then the weight is on there shoulders and they WILL pay the price.