HOW'S YOUR RESOLVE HOLDING UP?

at the recent british-american summit, president bush and prime minister blair made statements about the most recent terror attacks in turkey and bahgdad. while expressing grief and horror about the attacks against innocent civilians and calling the terrorists evil, they both said that the latest attacks "strengthen their resolve" to continue the fight and complete the mission of ridding the planet of terrorists. after the bloodiest month for casualties since the war began, resolve must be at or near all-time highs for the two leaders. what may be more important, is the resolve of the american soldiers.

without a plan of any kind or a date certain for getting out of iraq, it seems as though the troops are in the midst of a full scale escalation of military force being directed at soft targets, which they seem unable to defend, and against military targets which they are woefully unprepared for. our troops are in the middle of a full out guerrila war while our government and civilian contractors are trying to rebuild the ravaged country so that the iraqi population will start to support the troops, rather than loathe them.

our leaders have told us that the major conflict was over in may. now, a full 6 months later, the major combat is clearly still on, and the risks and casualties are mounting. the iraqi resistance is becoming bolder and more successful with each attack, and the civilian population is scared at best and angry at worst. the US government claims they were ready and prepared for a long hard battle, yet the soldiers and american population are not ready for such a circumstance. in fact, our president and secretary of defense still is touting the successes of the war.

from my standpoint and the standpoint of many others, there has been no 'real' success and the situation has become far worse. terror attacks around the world have increased dramatically since the invasion of iraq. we havent caught saddam or osama. we havent found WMD's in iraq, or anywhere else for that matter. threats of bigger and more devastating terror attacks have been broadcast loud and clear. no real global support, either financial or military, has been forthcoming from any other nation. the 9/11 report still doesnt acknowledge the saudi factor. and we are still claimimng success?

the president uses the word 'resolve' to let us know that he is 100% committed to the war he began, regardless of what american or world opinion is, yet his resolve will not win the war or stop terror. the 'resolve' of our troops and the american people, along with the support of the rest of the world will be necessary to achieve anything close to success.