Mixed Messages

This is War and Peace II.

When the vi'lence causes silence,
We must be mistaken.
It's the same old theme since nineteen-sixteen.
In your head, in your head they're still fighting,
With their tanks and their bombs,
And their bombs and their guns.
In your head, in your head, they are dying...

Zombie by the Cranberries.

What is it that we want? Is it one or the other?

Why do we expect trained killers, like myself, to enforce peace with the barrel of a gun pointed at those we claim to be fighting for?

The monster that is Saddam Hussein, the product of our interventionist policies, has been toppled and captured. Yet we insist in "staying the course." How much longer?

And for what? Honor? Whose? Yours? Mine? Or the people who benefited from all of this?