5 Years Later

So it's now been five years since the start of the War in Iraq... and where are we? 4,000 Americans and over 80,000 Iraqi civilians later, where are we? Was it worth it? Is Iraq truly better now than it was 5 years ago? I'm constantly amazed at how willing people are to simply fight. I'm amazed at how little a human life means to some people, let alone 90,000.

But then, I guess that's not the question facing us today. I guess the question now is: Where do we go from here? Do we stay there for the next hundred years? Or do we get out now? Would getting out now be better, or do we stay until the current government is stable enough to take care of itself? Will it ever be?

And not only in Iraq, but what will be our future foreign policy? Do we continue starting wars like the one in Iraq and the one we had in Vietnam? When do we try diplomacy? The military?

These are tough questions, ones that I wish I had the answers to. One thing I do know: We, the United States of America, have fought so many wars over the last 50 years that war has become the norm. Being in a state of war is our normal state of affairs in this country. That is incredibly sad. War should be the exception, not the norm.