The parents of the last Soldier to die in Iraq

have not even been born yet. History proves the United States has rarely, if ever, completely left countries where we spilled blood and spent treasure in either victory or a ceasefire in the past 100 years.

When US troops arrived on the Continent of Europe on June 6, 1944 with the first wave at Normandy Beach, we began a presence which continues to today. US soldiers in Europe first defeated the Nazis, rebuilt Western Germany, conducted the Berlin airlift to save the inhabitants of Berlin, stood by while the Berlin wall went up, remained vigilant for 28 years until the wall came down. US soldiers deployed to the first Gulf war to liberate Kuwait, drew its force down while deploying to Bosnia to prevent genocide in Eastern Europe, and now support the mission in Iraq. US soldiers have been on the Korean peninsula since the Korean War, and will continue to enforce what is only a ceasefire treaty. Kuwait following the first Gulf War? Still there -- it's a major logistical center of operation for the war effort in Iraq.

Vietnam? Well, the image of the last helicopter on the US Embassy roof top shuttling people out and those same helicopters being pushed off US aircraft carriers is the last time you will ever see the United Stated completely leave a foreign country where we had a military presence. The military will not let that happen again under any circumstance. It took until the Gulf war for the military to recover from the effect of that one image alone.

It is in the best interest of the United States to stay in Iraq and the Middle East. US Army soldiers and Marines will be fighting, training and dying in Iraq for a very long time. Americans loathe war, but the reality is we have enemies who want to kill us, and they exist right there (or close enough to there). Better to fight and defeat them where they live then to do it on our shores.

Return on Success

That's the most important phrase I took from the President's speech tonight. In line with Nixon's "Peace with Honor", Return on Success will benchmark the withdrawal of US forces in Iraq. Don't expect them to be returning in large numbers at least for a year. A year from today, we will still have 130,000+ troops in Iraq fighting what I hope will be a war of attrition against an enemy on the run and out of ammo. The President has a vision of a long term presence in Iraq, similar to Korea or western Europe following those conflicts. I agree with the concept of a long term troop presence in Iraq - the world is a safer place with two US Army Tank Divisions sitting in between people who have been fighting each other since 700 AD. The President dared the Congress to "unfund" the troops, and if that happens, then the blood of the soldiers who are ill equipped falls clearly on them, which in effect is the democrats.

The strategy outlined 8 months ago appears to be working. Taking another 6 months in the grand scheme of things is the wise course of action for the US to take at this time. The only thing that needs to change is the whole country needs to be in this war, and not just the military.