802 days.
1,652 American military dead, as of Friday.
Uncounted Iraqi dead.
No end in sight.
As Americans prepare to observe the third Memorial Day since the invasion of Iraq, the outcome of this questionable venture remains very much in doubt.
One sure thing: The United States is still a long way from "mission accomplished."
While Army recruiting has stalled, al-Qaida is attracting plenty of recruits. President Bush's policies in Iraq have inspired a global boom in Islamist terrorists.
The group that flew jetliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon had few, if any, ties to Iraq before the U.S. invasion.
But the International Institute for Strategic Studies reported last week that Iraq is becoming "a valuable proving ground" for "foreign jihadists and could conceivably form the basis of a second generation of capable al-Qaida leaders."
On a more promising note, the London-based institute, which is an authority on political-military conflicts, also reported that Bush's policies have emboldened regional players in the Middle East and Persian Gulf to rally against rogue states, according to The Guardian newspaper.
Spreading human rights and democracy in the oil-rich, but repressive, Middle East is Bush's best hope for salvaging a respectable legacy after misleading America into an unprovoked war.
The whole world was thrilled when ordinary Iraqis defied the insurgents and (with the notable exception of the Sunni minority) went to the polls to elect a government.
That was five months ago. Now the United States is so wary of the new government's ties to anti-U.S. Iran that the CIA is refusing to hand over control of Iraq's intelligence service to Iraq's government.
And what was hailed as a post-election decline in insurgent violence has proven to have been only a temporary lull as the bombers continue to blast away at civilian and military targets.
It will take at least five years to prepare Iraqi forces to impose law and order on their chaotic country, according to the Institute for Strategic Studies' experts. As a result, U.S. and British troops can expect to be there indefinitely.
Nothing resembling an exit strategy has been heard from the White House. U.S. military officials in Iraq frankly admit that there's no way to say when U.S. forces will no longer be required there.
The cost of the war to the United States is approaching $200 billion. Coupled with Bush's tax cuts, military spending is pushing the deficit to record, perhaps economy-shattering heights.
One result: reduced benefits for military veterans. The wounded returning from Iraq have had to wait for therapy. And some members of the Greatest Generation sued the Bush administration last week over cutbacks in medical care at their military retirement home.
Two years into the Vietnam War, fewer than 200 Americans had died, and the war was more than a decade from ending. By the time the United States exited that quagmire, 58,000 American military members had given their lives.
The World War II vets who defeated Nazism, fascism and imperialism knew why their lives were on the line. It was not so clear to the Americans who died fighting Vietnam's guerrilla warriors for control of their homeland. Likewise, it's unclear that an occupying foreign army can quench Muslim anger that's smoldered for a millennium since western conquerors arrived as Crusaders.
On this Memorial Day, when we honor those who gave their lives in military service, we should also think about how a free nation can protect itself and spread democratic ideals without sending its brave servicemen and servicewomen into unwinnable wars
