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# Dig a ditch, Mr. President
- URL: https://www.smdp.com/dig-a-ditch-mr-president-editor/
- Published: 2007-09-24T15:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-24T02:56:07.000Z
- Author: Guest Author
- Tags: Opinion, Santa Monica, #archive-import

*By Phyllis Elliott Santa Monica*

I think at this point the question is not so much how soon we can bring our soldiers home, as how we are going to repair the damage the U.S. has caused in Iraq.

Civil war breaks out in the power vacuum whenever a dictatorship is ended — as it did in the United States, in France, in Yugoslavia, in Afghanistan — can anyone think of an instance where this has NOT occurred?

As a hard-drinking “C” student at Yale, Mr. Bush seems to have paid no attention in history class, but apparently he also ignored examples in our lifetime — as did the Congress that authorized an invasion that has thrown Iraqi society into chaos, killed tens of thousands of civilians, and forced millions from their homes while killing and maiming thousands of young Americans.

The U.S. has a moral obligation to restore the infrastructure this invasion has destroyed. After spending trillions on combat, we’ll be spending even more repairing the damage. But maybe, if we send our best and brightest, if we rebuild their homes and their cities, we may just have a chance of achieving stability and regaining some of the world esteem Mr. Bush has squandered.

And instead of leaving his mess behind him at the end of his term and pocketing $75,000 a pop on lecture tours as he apparently aspires to do, I suggest he go to Iraq and start digging ditches until his “Mission” is accomplished.

*Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 24, 2007.* [Read the original PDF.](https://s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/smdp%5Fbackissues/092407.pdf?ref=smdp.com)