Three years ago on March 19, 2003 the United States launched a preemptive war on Iraq. Our president tried to assure us the U.S. was obligated to invade Iraq because intelligence indicated that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and Iraq had ties to international terrorism. Obviously, more ties than Afghanistan, where the master terrorist Osama Bin Laden was purported to be in hiding.                                

We were also assured that the war would be brief. Hussein’s government would be overthrown, Hussein captured or killed, and democracy would reign in Iraq. All this aljost happened. By April 9, 2003 the Iraq government had indeed been overthrown, culminating in the well publicized toppling of Saddam’s statue in Baghdad. Then on May 1 President Bush announced to the world, “mission accomplished” and that major combat had ended. But all that proved to be to be very premature.

Although Saddam was captured in December 2003, the mission is far from accomplished. No weapons of mass destruction has ever been found; Iraq is far from being a democracy; the country is on the verge of a raging civil war, and over 2,300 American soldiers and well over 30,000 Iraqis have been killed.

Thousands of young men and women, including sons and daughters of Caribbean parents here in Florida, are still in Iraq, and jost likely many more will be sent. It has also been estimated that well over $300 billion have been spent on the war and this could escalate upwards to $500 billion.

Three years later it seems that there is no way out of this war for the U.S. Over the past weekend thousands demonstrated against the war in America and all over the world. According to an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, 57 percent of Americans believe that there will be no successful conclusion to the war. In the mean time Bush’s approval rating continues to slip to a record low.

But can America really cut and run? We think not. What happened is that no one – except for former Secretary of State, Colin Powell, who warned his administration that getting into Iraq would be much easier than getting out – took into consideration the complexities of sectarian violence and religious diversity that exists in Iraq. Saddam was able to maintain an unreal peace by exercising extreme autocracy based upon a policy of extreme intolerance. When the U.S. toppled him and his government, all the subdued factions were unleashed.

Three years later the fight has shifted from the alleged search for WMD’s and Saddam to a fight against a viciously divided society, where two religious sectors, Sunnis and the minority Shiites are fighting for control. This is very similar to the civil strife between the North and South Vietnamese back in the 1960’s. This administration has to learn from that war.

The administration must shift from military combat to negotiation and mediation –a decision that President Lynden Johnson had to take to bring North and South Viet Nam together when he realized the U.S. could not win in Viet Nam. We must seek to mediate a compromise between both the religious groups. We must be able to influence a coalition government between Sunnis and Shiites. The Shiites must accept their minority status and that they no longer have the support of a Hussein leadership. If negotiation fails then it looks like the current violence will not end until two Iraqs – one controlled by the Shiites and the other, controlled by the Sunnis – emerge.

It is clear that the U.S. cannot continue fighting a war on unfamiliar terrain and among a people that want a different kind of settlement than the U.S. is now trying to force on them. We cannot pull out of Iraq now, although this is the popular preference. However, a different strategy must be used – one that involves preserving the lives of U.S. soldiers; less soldiers being sent to fight a seemingly unending war; and less money being spent on this war – money that could instead be spent on better social programs for underprivileged Americans.

Our role should now be policing rather than a combative force. Attempts must be made to secure some type of peace, with the U.S. being the mediator/negotiator securing peace between the warring groups. Only when this peace is secured, and order restored can U.S. be able to pull out of Iraq. If this fails, and it will not be an easy task, only the good Lord knows how long our young men and women will continue to die in