53 Year Old Soldier Killed In Iraq On Tuesday Related Why The Iraq War Cannot Be Won

On Tuesday, when 10 American soldiers lost their lives in Iraq, one soldier was a 53 year old Oregon Army Reservist, Ron Paulsen. When he was called back to duty in the manpower strapped army at the age of 52, he quickly learned why the Iraq War was simply not winable.

In the area where Paulsen served, the American government had high hopes that building a police station would allow Iraqis to police themselves. Instead the Sunni and Shiite and policemen failed to keep order in their neighborhood and instead engaged in war with each other and finally blewup the police station in warfare. Now American troops have to patrol the same neighborhood, and ultimately with rooftop snipers and roadside bombs, Paulsen lost his life. Now some claim that maybe the U.S. should spend even more money to build a new police station in this war torn Baghdad neighborhood where sectarian violence is the rule. But that is no promise that the police will not be corrupt or engage in sectarian violnce or blowup the new police station. Just last week, 3,000 corrupt Iraqi policemen and government employees were fired by the government.

Paulsen also lamented before his death that the nature of the insurgency in the Iraq War changes so fast that American troops just cannot get a handle on security in Iraq. With an inefective police force that oftewn commits sectarian killings themselves, one can quickly see why the George Bush "stay the course" efforts in iraq are simply doomed to failure. About the only positve justification for the continued role of U.S. troops in Iraq is that the sectarian violence would be so much worse without some efforts to stem the growing cycle of killing.

For 53 year old Paulsen, the Iraq War represented a conflict in which highly skilled veterans nearly as old as to be involved in Vietnam are increasingly being called back into active duty. But without a real plan to restore civil order or peace to Iraq by either the U.S. or the Iraqi government, so many good men and women are losing their lives in Iraq. Paulsen was just one of ten wonderful Americans who lost their lives in Iraq on Tuesday. Other families can tell you you what a wonderful son, father, grandfather, daughter, wife, mother, or grandmother their lost loved one was as well.