The Hiller Instinct: Hiller Instinct: Iraq: Three years

No one was surprised when American bombs burst over Baghdad three years ago: Saddam Hussein and the world had been warned:

President Bush said, "the United Nations Security Council has not lived up to its responsibilities, so we will rise to ours."

The war began, live on TV. A news commentator said, "These are live pictures of the 7th cavalry racing across the desert of southern Iraq"

Initially, it seemed, Iraq had been shocked and awed into instant submission...

Within weeks--when a statue of Saddam Hussein was toppled in Baghdad--a quick victory seemed near...

The President declared it in May, 2003, beneath a banner that said "mission accomplished:"

President Bush said, "the United States and our allies have prevailed."

But three years after the invasion, we have not prevailed:

Saddam Hussein (who we now know did not have weapons of mass destruction) has been captured...but Osama bin Laden--who started the war on terror--has not.

Iraqis have voted in a democratic election...but their new parliament is paralyzed...and their country may be close to civil war.

More than 2,300 U.S. soldiers have died in Iraq, more than 17,000 wounded...and since 9/11, we've spent nearly 400 billion dollars fighting terror.

The U.S. has not been attacked again, but terrorists have struck our allies, including Great Britain and Spain.

Today, according to a CNN/USA Today poll, 60 percent of Americans say the war in Iraq hasn't been worth it...and that it’s had a negative effect on the nation.

It's also pushed the President's approval ratings to new lows, which could go lower:

President Bush said, "I wish I could tell you that violence is waning and that the road ahead would be smooth. It will not."

The President may be strong--but wrong--on Iraq, but the Democrats have been pathetically weak, constantly criticizing, never offering a plan of their own.

That's why--after three years--the political war in Washington is just like the war in Iraq: no one has won.

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