Pelosi Offers Glum War Assesment Following Iraq Trip

Summarized Article by Bill Brubaker, Washington Post

"It's been nearly four years since we went to war in Iraq, and four years later there is still no end in sight," said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Wednesday.
Pelosi has just returned from a mid-east jaunt covering Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. She said she feels "discouraged" about the process there and that there was "no evidence of any political or diplomatic initiatives worthy of the sacrifice [of American lives]". She said that she feels that within a "matter of months" the U.S. must start changing deployments and developing a new mission, in addition to saying that pulling troops out of Iraq will best bring the country to a more stable point. Naturally, that will put the Democrat at heavy contrast to the plans of the Bush administration to send more troops.
Pelosi also met with Pakistani leader Pervez Musharraf and Afghan leader Harmid Karzai to talk about the status of those countries. Pelosi called Afghanistan the "forgotten war" and pleaded with NATO to provide their fair share of troops for that country.

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Pelosi's comments following her trip seem to run parallels with what has been said in the media all along -- a lot is left to be done. It's hard to disagree with someone that has now visited all of the U.S.'s current war theaters. It feels very discouraging to know that people without an overriding interest (i.e. the Bush Adminstration) can now go into Iraq and not see much progress. Maybe there is something to her idea of redeploying troops or bringing them home. Regardless, someone needs to step up to the plate and fully grasp this situation and find the easiest way out. We never be able to clean up the terrorist heaven that now lies in these borders.