September 11, 2007 - Bin Laden has surfaced on the eve of the sixth anniversary of the September Eleventh attacks on New York and Washington reminding us that he has not been brought to justice dead or alive.  It should also remind us that in six years more Americans than were lost on that horrific day have died in an unending mission to defeat Al Qaeda, destroy the Taliban, and conquer Iraq.  Bin Laden is still abroad in the world.  The President’s National Security Advisor, Frances Fragos Townsend reassures us and dismisses Bin Laden as “virtually impotent”. 

If we have deposed the Iraqi dictator and sponsored free and fair elections in his country; if we have deposed the Taliban and rendered Bin Laden and his Al Qaeda “virtually impotent” then what remains of the mission on which we sent our young men and women to be accomplished?  We have brought democracy of a sort to the Iraqis.  We have brought democracy of a sort to the Afghans.  If Ms. Townsend is correct we have emasculated Bin Laden.  Is it now our military’s mission to choose and support a winner in the intractable Iraqi civil war?  Is it now our military’s mission to police Afghanistan to again suppress the Taliban?  Have we abandoned the task of bringing Bin Laden in, dead or alive? Can we not bring the troops home?

Buried in General Petreaus’ testimony before the House of Representatives committee was an unsettling remark.  He said that the Iraqi government is negotiating an agreement for a permanent American security presence in the country.  His comment was in the context of describing American efforts to seal the Iran-Iraq border against arms smuggling.  Has it become American policy to permanently garrison the territory of Iraq as part of a new cold war to encircle and isolate Iran?  Even if we are able to unilaterally pacify Iraq and establish a permanent military presence there; even if we and NATO are able to pacify Afghanistan and establish a permanent military presence there; so long as we do not have Russian agreement and cooperation with the policy it cannot succeed.  Until Russia signs on to the policy the circle is unjoined and failure of the mission is preordained.

All of this begs the question, what now is the mission?  Where do we go from here?  If the mission has been to bring democracy to the Iraqis and Afghanistan that task has been accomplished and that mission is over. Democratically elected governments sit in both capitols.  The shape those democracies take is up to their citizens, not the American administration if it was our mission to bring democracy.  Yet American armed forces remain in both Iraq and Afghanistan.  From that we must conclude that their mission is not yet accomplished. 

We have deposed and killed Saddam Hussein.  We have cleansed Iraq of Weapons of Mass Destruction.  We have ousted the Taliban from power.  Democratically elected governments sit in Baghdad and Kabul. What now is the mission?  Mr. President, where do we go from here?