Mission … Evolving

By Peter Scheer

"......Nestled among assorted pseudo-announcements and stale slogans was a telling pitch from a president who has repeatedly revised his motive for war: “Our mission in Iraq will evolve.”

The surreal timeline of the Iraq war is littered with moments like these—too many about-faces and nonsensical blunders to keep a firm grip on reason. Bush invaded a country to rid it of imaginary weapons of mass destruction. When he didn’t find any, he declared victory and changed the mission to democracy building. When that strategy led to a theocratic government unresponsive to sectarian bloodletting, the mission became about stability. And now, the one goal supporters of the war seem determined to realize is to achieve some vague, if delusory, sense of victory.

So, the president tells us, as we attempt to follow his circuitous logic, that the mission is evolving, as though it were some determined organism destined to adapt to adversity and thrive......."