My main prayer for this holiday season is that this time next year we are not still stuck in Iraq as we presently are in terms of possibly doubling the number of American deaths and casualties. I hope President Bush's new strategy for winning the war is successful in this regard.
My main concern with President Bush is his seeming lack of flexibility and obsession with winning at all costs, no matter what the human death toll. Obviously he is motivated by his personal religious convictions which one cannot certainly deny him. However, once again, his religious obsession in winning the war (good triumphing over evil) does not make any allowance for flexibility or even compromise.
Leadership, I would submit, is not only standing tough, such as the case of President Bush with regard to Iraq, but also freely admitting when mistakes have been made and having the flexibility to correct those mistakes; if not only to admit when one has been pursuing a course which is no longer viable. In this respect he reminds me a bit of Lyndon Johnson during the Vietnam War although there are differences.
But, again the best of all worlds is that we succeed in Iraq as soon as is humanly possible with minimum casualties and death, and then that the Iraqis are able to defend themselves without our help and support.
The tragedy, as I see it, is can we (the United States) realistically expect this to occur within one year's time?
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Jack Schauer
Fargo
