LET'S NOT CONFUSE FANTASY WITH REALITY

It never ceases to amaze me how war supporters go on with their daily diatribe of what "progress" really means by measuring just how many schools and hospitals have been built in Iraq thus far--and that alone proves that we should continue the illegal occupation of a nation which never posed a threat to us in the first place.

The sad truth that these war supporters refuse to face--let alone acknowledge--is that Iraq in itself is getting one step closer each day to becoming a failed state.

Iraq's own parliament is in chaos and hasn't passed any meaningful legislation which the US has been striving for as 'benchmarks'. I read a news article illustrating just how chaotic things are: That members of Iraq's own parliament are constantly squabbling, sparring verbally with each other and basically giving other members the cold shoulder when the prospect of formulating anything democratic pops up.

They just aren't interested! All they care about is their own ambitions and their own needs--not the Iraqis they claim to represent.

And it doesn't stop there. Iraq is lawless. The security forces are incapable of bringing peace and security to the country--not when militias, gangs, and terrorist groups continue to have free reign of the nation.

The remaining people don't have the resources they need. Power is in short supply, food is mediocre, and medicine is scarce. Iraqis are leaving the country in droves--to the tune of 2 million and counting.

And Malaki's government? Completely incompetent and unable to govern. It is a weak representation of an equally weak notion that we could ever bring democracy to a country that was simply not ready for it.

Is this what we are fighting in Iraq for these days?

Schuyler Thorpe

xxxth Street xx #X001

Everett, WA 98204

(XXX)-XXX-XXXX