Our View: U.S. could use dose of peace and prosperity, too

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September 2, 2010

The Salem News Thu Sep 02, 2010, 06:00 AM EDT

There was a tone of resignation in President Obama's voice Tuesday night that seemed to reflect the mood of a nation drained by a decade of war, deficit and recession.

His remarks on the end of U.S. combat operations in Iraq was hardly a victory speech. Rather, he used the occasion to praise the bravery of American troops there and in Afghanistan, warn of a terrorist threat that will require us to remain vigilant for many decades to come, and suggest that the winding down of the war will allow Washington to devote more time and resources to the problems that plague us here at home.

It's been a tough slog for Americans since that morning almost nine years ago that Osama bin Laden's henchmen hijacked four commercial jetliners, crashing two of them into the World Trade Center in New York City and another into the Pentagon. And there's no question the cost of keeping the homeland secure from another attack and trying to change the political equation in the Middle East, where the ideology that gave rise to 9/11 still flourishes, has helped create the crushing debt with which we struggle today.

Obama's speech from the Oval Office contained none of the soaring rhetoric that won him election as the candidate of hope in 2008. But it was an honest and forthright appraisal of the sacrifice we have endured to date and the daunting challenges still ahead.

While Obama has followed through on his pledge to end combat operations in Iraq, and there has been a dramatic decline in the number of military and civilian casualties, the political situation there remains extremely volatile. We rid the country of its murderous dictator, Saddam Hussein, and have given its people time to establish an alternative form of government. The rest is up to them.

Obama also indicated that having banished al-Qaida and the Taliban to the mountain caves along its border with Pakistan, Afghans will find themselves in much the same situation come next summer when the U.S. begins winding down its combat operations in that country.

As columnist David Shribman noted on these pages Saturday, there will be no "Missouri moment," referring to the treaty-signing aboard a U.S. warship in Tokyo Bay that marked victory over Japan and the end of World War II 65 years ago this week, with which we can recall the end of combat operations in either Iraq or Afghanistan.

We can only hope those in the countries from which we are departing can somehow find their way to peace and prosperity; that those who wish us no good like Iran and North Korea will think twice before acting on their evil intentions; and that with the human and monetary burden of war lifted, the American economy will manage to finally make that long-awaited turnaround.

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