from The Forward

FORWARD: "Now that the American invasion has turned out to be a clueless blunder into a bottomless quagmire, there's a natural temptation for critics to gloat. Bush sold himself to Americans after September 11 as the tough cop who would chase down the terrorists wherever they were hiding and restore the nation's security and honor. It turns out his threats were not just empty but dangerous. Taking on Saddam didn't intimidate terrorists everywhere but rather inflamed them, emboldened them and brought them pouring into Iraq. Now the terrorists are stronger than ever, and we're stretched across the Middle East like sitting ducks. For those who still can't think of Bush without picturing hanging chads and butterfly ballots, there's a grim satisfaction in the president's quandary.



But the quandary is not the president's. It's ours. We, the American nation, sent our troops into Iraq, like it or not. Those soldiers dying every day as the fighting continues are not Republicans or Democrats, neoconservatives or new-age liberals, but American soldiers. If Iraq is broken, we're the ones who broke it. Now it's up to us to fix it."