(A) Copasetic World: Selling Iraq on e-bay

Tonight, President Bush laid out another plan forward in Iraq. He proposed an increase of 17,500 troops in and around Baghdad and another 4,000 in Anbar Province. This time, the President believes his plan will work.

"In earlier operations, political and sectarian interference prevented Iraqi and American forces from going into neighborhoods that are home to those fuelling the sectarian violence. This time, Iraqi and American forces will have a green light to enter these neighborhoods - and [Iraqi]Prime Minister [Nouri] Maliki has pledged that political or sectarian interference will not be tolerated."

Although "political and sectarian interference" has stifled progress in religiously divided neighborhoods, the President ignores the central reason American and Iraqi forces have not been successful infiltrating the most dangerous corners of Iraq. Neighborhoods overflowing with sectarian violence are lethal, and any attempt to pacify them with force will incur a heavy loss of life, both Iraqi and American. In other words, by giving soldiers the "green light" to enter ground zero, President Bush tonight asked the American people to accept both an escalation in troop levels and in bloodshed.

In this dark and warm winter, the only consensus that seems to exist regarding the Iraq War is the lack of a solution. Even the President has finally admitted this. He also claims the war is no longer only a military conflict.

"It is the decisive ideological struggle of our time.On one side are those who believe in freedom and moderation. On the other side are extremists who kill the innocent, and have declared their intention to destroy our way of life."

President Bush's arrogance has left him blind. After preemptively invading Iraq with vague intelligence, he dares to imply that we are on the side of "freedom and moderation". There is nothing moderate about the "shock and awe" campaign he ordered on March 20, 2003.

There will not be an end to the Iraq War during President Bush's tenure. The next President of the United States will inherit a huge burden. If the United States truly hopes to be a beacon of "freedom and moderation", the first steps for the next President will be to admit the horrible atrocity of the Iraq War, apologize to the world for committing preemptive war and request help from the international community. In the end, the only solution to the Iraq War is for the United States to show humility.

"We have forgotten the gracious hand which has preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and have vainly imagined in the deceitfulness of our hearts that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving Grace." --Abraham Lincoln

I found the following items for sale on e-bay.

Combat Boots, 35 days in Iraq - $25.36