Iraq is the schism that will sink or elevate America

It's a damn shame that we have troops fighting and dying in Iraq but that's the reality on the ground, as they say, so we, as a nation, must find a way to resolve the quagmire.
The rhetoric today is positive and hopeful and, if by some wild chance it plays out as planned, it could be an historic moment in world history and, certainly, in U.S. foreign policy. If this nation's electorate would just stop watching TV and listening to right-wing tub-thumpers on radio and THINKING about what is happening in our world, I believe that we can find a way to support this process -- at least to a degree that doesn't undermine its progress. I think we have to give the administration a few quiet weeks of unfettered diplomatic effort. We should wait a while to allow the outcome of the Iraq election to dissolve into clarity and then, depending on that outcome, we the people should either cheer or lambast the president and every Cabinet member without restraint.
I don't know what's going to happen in Iraq. I don't have great hope for stability in that contentious nation anytime soon, but I pray that the election will draw enough Sunnis and Shittes together to at least give the seminal government a good chance at surviving for a few years.
I do not agree with the conservative group that wants Americans to keep their opinions to themselves (if those opinions aren't blindly agreeing with anything Rumsfeld/Bush say), but I do think that a little restraint for a few weeks could go a long way toward giving a real chance to success in Iraq. Of course, a chance does not a done deal make, and if the wheels fall off, I'd rather it happen because of the circumstances on the ground (there's that phrase again) rather than because of the rhetoric here in America and on the Hill. After of few weeks, of course, the gloves should come off completely and without reservation! And that's my 2-cents.
We have so much domestic trouble here at home that I wish the activists would focus on those.
Merry Christmas everyone, and Happy New Year!