An inter-Mennonite newspaper, putting the Mennonite world together every week since 1923

EDITORIAL

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The Iraq war continues to defy predictions. Even the invasion’s most staunch opponents did not expect today’s depressing reality: A war dragging toward the five-year mark with no end in sight. Nor did supporters of the 2007 troop “surge” envision so dramatic a decline in violence as occurred in the year’s second half.

So 2007 came to a bad news, good news end: It was the deadliest year for the U.S. military since the 2003 invasion, with 899 troops killed. But the death rate dropped sharply in the latter months. Twenty-one U.S. troops died in Iraq in December, compared to 126 in May. The U.S. military reported Iraqi civilian deaths were down by 75 percent in December compared to a year ago.

All who lament this war are thankful and will pray that the bloodshed continues to ease. Key factors in the reduced loss of life are Sunnis breaking their alliance with al-Qaida fighters and, by some accounts, a general turning away from Sunni-Shia civil war by those weary of daily carnage. Also, Iran apparently has reduced its flow of suspected aid to Shia fighters.

But the gains may be temporary. Better security cannot be sustained without political progress that moves toward healing the country’s divisions. The Shia-dominated government has done little to reconcile with the Sunnis. Ethic violence and death-squad activity could rise again. Iraq’s social fabric has been torn apart. The war has displaced more than 4 million people — 2.2 million outside Iraq and 2.3 million inside.

To note the improvements in Iraq is also to recognize a hugely diminished standard for U.S. success there. The stable democracy that American war planners dreamed of remains a distant hope. “Winning” now seems defined as trying to prevent further catastrophe while digging in for an endless “war on terror” and a permanent U.S. military presence.

The American people ought not to accept this. The U.S. occupation of Iraq is an extension of an invasion built on mistakes and deceptions, for which we and the Iraqi people have already paid a high price in lives and money. To keep this cost from growing far greater, the American people must continue to urge their elected officials, especially the next president, to end the occupation.

The United States cannot bring peace to Iraq by keeping its troops there. Long-term solutions remain in Iraqi hands. But the United States could contribute to a better future by directing its vast resources to humanitarian and rebuilding efforts and to diplomacy involving other Middle Eastern countries, including those with whom we currently refuse to talk. This would employ “soft power,” now recognized by some U.S. officials as essential to achieving what force cannot. It would assist Iraq’s national reconciliation, which is the key to peace. — Paul Schrag