First, go and read the following article right now: MSNBC News: The Only Way Out is Forward

I was, and have been, vehemently against the War in Iraq. Yes, Saddam was a bad man. So what? There are lots of bad men running countries in many parts of the world, but we weren’t lining up to remove them from power. No, Saddam’s removal from Iraq has been sought by hawks in the administration for years as a part of a larger plan to remake the Middle East and maintain American military primacy.

We went against the world and declared war on Iraq for so many reasons, but the ones that get trotted out over and over to the American people are the following: because (a) Saddam had links to al-Qaeda and (b) Saddam had lots of really scary weapons that he could use against us any second. To this day, neither assertion has been proven true by our government or by the international community.

Our government called this war “Operation Iraqi Freedom”—a name which has bothered me all along. I feel that the use of that name already hinted that the Administration knew that they were telling lies or exaggerating truths. It was a name dreamed up to be good P.R., i.e. if we can’t find WMDs (we haven’t) or real links to al-Qaeda and 9/11 (we haven’t) then we can always say we went to war to aid the Iraqi people.

America at large supported the war. Our Administration and Congress supported the war. We were told by the Administration that it would be a quick war, not cost a lot of money or lives, and that we will see it through to the bitter end, which shouldn’t take too long.

Now, we are finding out that almost everything said to get us into the war were outright lies or puffery designed to get the public and politicians to support the war. We are finding out that many people in power knew that this war would be costly and time-consuming. (Remember Bosnia? That peacekeeping/nation-building exercise is still going on today!) Last week, our President asked Congress to allot $87 billion for the “War on Terror” (i.e. Iraq and Afghanistan). Not surprisingly, many people have been balking at that price tag, including many people who supported the war.

To which I say: suck it up. You wanted this war. Even though our Administration told us otherwise, we should all remember history, and know that most wars have never been finished quickly and easily. I think we all knew that this might be another Vietnam, but we forged on regardless of that fear.

So, despite my feelings for the war, I believe that we have a moral obligation to finish what we started. Our Administration chose this path, and they need to see it through. We owe it to Iraq and Afghanistan—the people we said that we were liberating. We owe it to ourselves, too: every day we let these countries get worse, there’s more anger which may be transformed into terrorist attacks on the US or her allies.

Give them security, restore their basic services, keep the peace, and let them govern themselves. Make them as happy and prosperous as possible.

Then—and only then—may you leave with a clear conscience.