Black Box Report

More than 4,000 American soldiers have died in Iraq; a multiple of that injured and hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent, and were still wondering when we will see the return on the most costly of investments.

We know we were lied to about the reasons for the war, the sacrifices to expect, and how long it would last. We were misled on how we would be greeted, when Iraqis would fight for themselves and how their oil would foot the bill. We were told of the "Coalition of the Willing," though we largely fight alone. We were promised a functioning Iraqi government; instead we got sectarian dysfunction. I could go on, but why bother? We all know the backstory. What happens next though? You tell me.

November will tell us a great deal. But beyond the next president, is a functioning democratic Iraq really a possibility? Can we leave too soon or are we delaying the inevitable? While we finally have some adults in Secretary Gates and General Petraeus running things, they cannot undo the failures of the fathers of this fiasco.

So again I come back to the question: Can we ever say "mission accomplished" in Iraq and mean it?

My heart hopes so but my head says that ship has sailed.