Walking the line. . .

This is solely my opinion and does not intentionally reflect the official or unofficial opinion of any other person or entity. That, and my movers are coming today, so I am avoiding thinking about my task at hand.

Was the war in Iraq worth it? Based on a variety of recent polls and news reports, it would appear that majority opinion among US citizens is that it was NOT. Though, did we really need a poll to tell us that? There are blame games going around and supporters of the war on all the news shows insisting the war was the right thing to do. I'm not even sure what their point is in doing this. Nobody can change the past and it is not going to persuade war-weary Americans to go back to war.

I cannot help but wonder how far all the money spent in Iraq could have gone toward research and development for sustainable energy sources within our own country? Again, beside the point, because we cannot change the past. And, even if we could, we don't actually know what would have happened. Would President Obama have been elected president had we not gone to war in the previous administration? Would we now have President Clinton or President McCain instead? Who knows? The point is that so many things would have been different that we have no way of knowing how those differences would have affected Iraq, the US and the world.

What do we know? We know that regardless of the past mistakes, and clearly there were many from many different people, we have to deal with the situation we have now. So, let's stop the blame game and deal with the reality of the present.

These realities can be found throughout the news stories that all seem to agree, at least, on some core  basics regardless of political leanings.

Reality is that Iran already has a lot of sway and will continue to have such sway with the Shia populations. 

Reality is that the Sunnis do not trust the Shia or Iran.

Reality of the present is that the American public will not support putting thousands of troops on the ground.

Reality is that even if we do put troops on the ground, ISIL would use it as an exceptionally successful recruiting tool.

Reality is that more the West gets involved, the more ISIL will claim that this is not about one sect of Islam against another, but about the West against Islam.

Reality is that if we give weapons to "moderate" rebels in Syria, there is a strong possibility those weapons will end-up in the wrong hands at some point down the road.

Reality is that if we do nothing ISIL grows, if we bomb Syria we support Assad.

Reality in each of the regions is that though united against a common enemy for now, still each region has a variety of factions that at some point will again be fighting each other for power should a partition take place. This still could be a better situation than we have now, but that is above my pay grade (especially since I don't get paid).

What do we do with all of that? I really can't say. But, ignoring reality is not a viable option.