One Democrat "talking point" that I hear a lot on TV is that there is a civil war in Iraq, and that there can be no military solution to a civil war. I wonder why they didn't pay attention in history class because there was a civil war in the United States once, and it was resolved militarily. The "civil war" in Iraq, if that is what it is, could be readily resolved militarily by wiping out the Sunni's. But, we don't want to do that, and we don't want the Shia to wipe out the Sunni's. The Iraq war is more complicated than just a civil war. There are at least five groups involved; Sunni, Shia, Kurds, al-Queda, and the United States. Add to that some interference from Iran and Syria. The US is fighting al-Queda and at the same time is trying to stop the Shia and Sunni's from killing each other. The situation is too complicated for our politicians to deal with it with their posturing and sound bites.

Another complaint from the Democrats is that we have been fighting al-Queda for six years now, longer than WWII lasted. This is also a simplistic sound bite observation. Using the US civil war as an example, the fighting lasted for only four years, but the Reconstruction activity for pacifying the South lasted 12 years, from 1865 to 1877. Even after that, there was still animosity toward the North from elderly people that I knew in Texas when I was a boy.