On Dec. 18, the Sun Journal reported that several U.S. agencies said that the country is not winning against insurgents in Iraq.

The war in Iraq is predicted to last seven or more years, according to what Rhode Island Sen. Lincoln Chafee was told by commanders in the field during his recent tour of Iraq. The moderate Republican wants President Bush to be honest with Americans. Because the number of deaths is rising and the number of troops increasing, we can expect to lose many more family members in the years ahead.

For what?

Israelis are the only people who would have found nation building in an Arab country more impossible. Bush repeats the mistake of Lebanon with the same increasingly catastrophic consequences.

New Year’s is traditionally the time for Americans to do a reality check and resolve to do better. Let us take an honest look at Iraq. Why not let the United Nations take over without preconditions? Halliburton has made so much money already, even if it does lose contracts it won’t go bankrupt.

We could start restoring diplomatic relations with Islamic nations by redeploying the American troops as peacekeepers in Darfur, Sudan. This New Year’s resolution should be to never again go off half-cocked and unilaterally send an army where the United Nations and a war crimes tribunal is what is required.

Tom Bulger, Wilton