It is heartening to see that the US lawmakers have come round to acknowledging that Iraq has been a disaster for America. We welcome not only the courage but also the long term vision of the legislators in setting a timeframe for US disengagement from Iraq. It is an acknowledgment too that the failed policy demanded very urgently crafting of a new way forward from a very hopeless position. But we fear that this, as like the previous legislation calling for pulling out of Iraq, will be vetoed by the US president who still believes that the war in Iraq could be won.

To most dispassionate observers Iraq war was destined to failure the day it was launched, for many reasons, but mainly because of the weak moral ground on which the country was invaded and illegally occupied. And five years after the 'mission accomplished' picture of Bush was spread all over the international media, one is not quite certain what really the Iraq objective of the Bush administration was, to start with. Whatever it is, it is certainly not what the world has come to hear ad nauseam from the protagonists of US aggression. US continued presence in Iraq has nothing to do with establishing democracy there, far from it.

Meanwhile in five years President Bush has succeeded in breaking up the country into sectarian lines, has managed to kill more innocent civilians than what Saddam did in his more than two decades in power; worse still, his policy has helped al-Qaida gain a foothold in Iraq while the region has been made more volatile than ever before.

There is much to be lost from postponing the inevitable. What Bush must ensure is that the situation does not become another Vietnam and that a well planned exit strategy is put in place to avoid a rout. But in all this one fears that the highly divided nation that Iraq is now may never be able to coagulate as one.