On the surface, this seems like a fair question:
Two truths have emerged from Iraq in recent months. First, corruption is so pervasive in Prime Minister Nouri Maliki's government that political progress in Iraq may be impossible. Second, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and our embassy in Baghdad are inexplicably neglecting this corrosive threat.
Confronting these facts is difficult. Nearly 4,000 American soldiers have been killed and another 28,000 wounded in Iraq since the 2003 invasion. No one wants to believe that these sacrifices were made to establish and support a regime riddled with fraud and graft. But as President Bush asks for an additional $153 billion for the war, we can't shrink from this reality.
Yes, we must address this issue. Establishing rule of law is critical for the long run in Iraq. I've long held that we'd have to face the task of fighting corruption one day when the insurgencies were beaten down. It is clearly a vital task at the appropriate time, but one that always had to take a back seat to killing and defeating terrorists and insurgents. We do not get any credit if jihadis, Sadrists, or Baathists kill honest rulers and take control of Iraq. There are no "style" points in war. You win or lose.
Our troops have fought and died to end the threat of Saddam's Iraq, destroy an attempt by al Qaeda to conquer Iraq, stifle Iran's imperial ambitions, and build a democratic Iraq that will demonstrate a third way between autocracy and mullah rule in the Arab Moslem world.
The only reason that corruption can be the focus of Congressional hearings is that our actual armed enemies in Iraq are shrinking in importance as obstacles to victory.
But in the reality of our current Congress, a third-tier Iraqi corruption problem (which reflects the entire Arab world and is not unique to Iraq) is being offered as the latest excuse to give up and run away from Iraq.
For God's sake, people, grow a friggin' pair.
