WAR ON TERRORISM;- Are We There Yet?

Headlines like “Paris Hilton Goes to Jail” and “Lindsay Lohan Drives Drunk” often steals the national media attention at the expense of life threatening events whether in the United States or relating to the U.S. involvement in world affairs, especially in Iraq. Once every three months, a leading Democrat will get a hunch to heat the Republican defenses with the burning issue of Iraq and how long it will take for our sons and daughters to get back home. On Tuesday August 14, the suicide bombings in Northern Iraq with the death tolls heaping up to 500 or more, (apparently then deadliest in recent years) gives us an insight into the peace, democracy and the freedom that the global community is fighting for. But only Gen. David Petraeus has the mandate of Congress to assess the damage, so until his report clearly advises against either a full surge or a complete withdrawal from Iraq: - “so help us God.” Until then, we can only hope that such mindless acts of terrorism and the Bin Laden associates live somewhere between the ‘shadows’ and ‘nowhere’.
The roller coaster state of Iraq had its flashes on CNN, C-SPAN and FOX News, but that was until Nicole Richie allegedly became pregnant, Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton’s performance on the You Tube Democratic debate and David Beckam arrived in America; and we were back to business as usual. The crossroad argument to bring the troops home took a backseat, at least as far as the ordinary American is concerned, until another marine is shipped back home ‘ice cold’ to his wife and children. Since the invasion of Iraq (I prefer “Operation Iraqi Freedom” as was the caption on FOX News for a month before it changed again to “War on Terror”), of course many civilians and military personnel have lost their lives, a casualty that is often attributed to war no matter how legitimate or otherwise. In the wake of recent events in Iraq and even the Middle East as a whole, the global community is forced to find answers from either UN Secretary Ban Ki-Moon or any one with a world changing idea(including my friend Stephen Colbert); and the sooner the better.
According to senior U.S. General, “the Tuesday truck bombs that targeted the villages of Qahtaniya, al-Jazeera and Tal Uzair, in northern Iraq near the border with Syria, were a "trademark al Qaeda event" designed to sway U.S. public opinion against the war”, "break the will" of the American people and show that the U.S. troop escalation -- the "surge" -- is failing.
Welcome to the world of subjective reasoning. However you look at it, the situation in Iraq gets complicated by the day and irrespective of whether the United States approach is illegitimate or ill advised, something has to be done in Iraq, and has to be done fast.
“Tensions already exist between Yazidis and local Muslims - and an impending regional referendum is adding to the difficulties.” Whether or not the United States (or the coalition Forces) presence in the region will be enough to curtail such violence, is up in the air; your guess is as good as mine.The terrorist’s threat to human life is interwoven in the difficulty of narrowing a search to a specific country, region or area. Al Qaeda networks are ruthless, and for whatever their reasons are, I cannot think of any justification to kill hundreds of innocent people anywhere whether, Sunnis, Shites, Yadzis or anyone for that matter.
The scary thought is” three suicide trucks carrying two tons of explosives” could very well be anywhere and in fact anytime. At least now we know that the war on terror is a long way from being over; but I really hope I am wrong.