Editor's Notes: Our troops deserve clear exit strategy

One of my neighbors found out last week he’s being asked to make a another tour of duty in Iraq.

For the second time, the Naval reserve officer will have to leave behind his wife, three young children and promising job as a civil engineer. The orders amount to his third tour of combat duty, dating to the first Persian Gulf War.

The Seabee’s children, ages 8, 6 and 3, will look back in a decade and marvel at the sacrifices made by their father. His expertise will help build roads, schools and hospitals in a God-forsaken country that’s important only because of its oil supply.

As young adults in 10 years, his children will smile, and cry, after reading the e-mails he writes to the family, wishing he could be telling them bedtime stories or watching their baseball and softball games.

The more they analyze the decision to send their father to Iraq, I am guessing, they will begin to wonder why they were asked to give up so much when this country stands to gain so little.

As President Bush addressed troops Thursday and told them he would stop the reduction of forces in Iraq, he turned his back on families and military men and women who have done their part and need to be rewarded with a clear exit strategy.

Saddam Hussein was toppled and executed. Few, if any, weapons of mass destruction were found. We have spent nearly $1 trillion on fighting and reconstruction. We have lost 4,000 American lives. Tens of thousands have been injured. Mental problems follow them back to American soil.

Enough. Enough of the stress. Enough of the risk. It is time for us to leave Iraq to the Iraqis.

We have been training them for five years. We have provided the lessons in democracy. We should not offer any more American blood and sweat. The payback is not worth the cost in human lives, disrupted families and taxpayer dollars.

The factions in Iraq need to deal with the fallout themselves. The sects and tribes who want to run the Iraqi government have no intention of turning the country’s great oil wealth over to Iran or al-Qaida. The Iraqis are backward, stubborn and unpredictable. But they’re not stupid.

Bush should accept timetables for withdrawal, even if it’s with great reluctance.

Without concrete demands from us, the Iraqis will keep spending our money and sacrificing our lives. There’s no motivation for them to become self-sufficient.

They will keep stockpiling money in foreign bank accounts while we face the prospect of $4 a gallon gasoline and a deteriorating economy.

“The day will come when Iraq is a capable partner of the United States,” Bush said Thursday to the military and U.S. civilians in Iraq. “The day will come when Iraq’s a stable democracy that helps fight our common enemies and promote our common interests in the Middle East.

“And when that day arrives, you’ll come home with pride in your success,” Bush said.

The success we’ve had in Iraq will have to be good enough. Military families cannot be asked to keep making such supreme sacrifices. They have served with pride. They have made gains. They have done their job.

The failure rests with Washington’s inability to escape the quagmire. It is a failure of moral leadership. It is a failure of strategic leadership. It is a failure of diplomacy. It is a failure to keep promises to troops and American people. It is time for drastic change.

Gen. David Petraeus told Congress last week the so-called surge’s success was fragile and reversible, even though he testified only 2,000 al-Qaida operatives are in Iraq.

Every day, more and more Americans regret the decision to go to war. Military families, at this point, are at the front of the line.

They will do what they’re ordered to do. They will support their loved ones as the troops hunt down terrorists and build infrastructure in Iraq. But they are boiling inside about the lack of vision and lack of exit strategy.

My neighbor’s daughter goes to kindergarten with my little girl. In the school cafeteria Wednesday, she was looking at a note inside her lunch box from her mother. It said simply: “I love you. Mom.”

“My dad writes me notes like this, too,” she said, “even when he’s in Iraq.”

Iraq has been home away from home for too many troops. After five years of sacrifice and uncertainty, they deserve to deliver their hugs and kisses and say “I love you” in person.

James Bennett is editor of the Green Valley News. Contact him at jbennett@gvnews.com. Respond by e-mailing letters@gvnews.com. Comment on this column online at www.gvnews.com.