A CBS poll out last week showed that "59 percent said the United States did not do the right thing going to war in Iraq in the first place and 72 percent said the war was not worth the loss of life and other costs to the country, the highest percentage since the invasion in March 2003."
The larger geopolitical repercussions of the war are still playing out. It drained American credibility around the world, particularly after the intelligence on weapons of mass destruction proved false and after the abuse scandal at Abu Ghraib prison. The specter of an American war on Islam, no matter how much it is denied by Washington, looms large in parts of the world.
What's heard mostly strikes me as ambivalence battling with skepticism. It shows in the statements of one Marine colonel's summary, given to Peter Baker at the New York Times.
One of those who from the beginning saw clearly what would come in Iraq was Col. Alan Baldwin, the chief Marine intelligence officer in Iraq during the invasion. A few days before the war began, he sat down with a few reporters and, off the record, predicted that the American invasion would lead to what he called a “rolling civil war.”
Today, retired from the Marines, he said sticking it out during the roughest moments and avoiding defeat prevented an even worse outcome. “We’ve won by not losing and we continue to win by continuing to engage, continuing to support,” he said. “We lose in some ways, too, by not doing so perfectly. But we’re still there.”
Looking back to his prediction seven years ago, he said: “We opened a Pandora’s box. Lots of bad things were flying out of there. But good things are there now too. It’s amazing we had the patience to be where we are today.”
Where's that? Well, no one seems completely sure of the answer.
