Problems fester without confronting them

Chris Urago, Las Vegas

Saturday, April 12, 2008 | 2:04 a.m.

Maureen Dowd writes in her Thursday column that the narrative of our misadventure in Iraq compares to “Macbeth” — the Scots stick superstitiously to calling it the “Scottish play” rather than “Macbeth.” Maybe they know better than to utter the name of a king who consults witches to commit murder, and whose wife shares his ambition.

Ms. Dowd’s confusion is very much our own as we view the road that seemingly leads nowhere. Nor can its path be determined by Armed Services Committee hearings, just because we are in the middle of a long war, not at the end. As Pericles tried to calm the Athenians during the 27-year Peloponnesian War, all he could say was, “I am the same.” Which is to say, stick with me and we will get through this, even after a devastating epidemic raged through Athens in the second year of the war, 430-429 B.C.

Not to say that our legacy will be a world wonder of a gift of peace and equality among the Sunnis and Shiites, but if we do not quite see the end of the road, it is because the conflicts that inspire war take an egregious amount of work to get through.

We note, too, that 10 years ago in Northern Ireland peace talks concluded as negotiations reached the landmark settlement to end 30 years of bitter rivalries and bloody attacks. Perhaps Sen. John McCain was excessive in his “100 years” of U.S. occupation in Iraq — it may be more like 30.