It’s time to leave Iraq. All at once. Now.

As Iraq approaches what should be a stabilizing milestone – the adoption of a new constitution – the situation appears to be as bad as ever.

While Vice President Dick Cheney recently announced the insurgency was in its last throes, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld admitted the insurgency could last a dozen years or more, adding Tuesday that a new Iraqi constitution won’t end all the violence.

In addition to that bit of news, the Sunni faction in Iraq is on the verge of walking away from constitutional talks because of how oil revenues will be distributed, which will likely lead to outright civil war.

And the freedom nearly 2,000 Americans have given their lives to provide to the Iraqi people?

It may be virtually worthless, if you’re a woman.

The current draft of Iraq’s constitution enshrines Islam as the official religion of the nation, and may leave matters of equality and law to Muslim clerics rather than judges.

So we deposed a secular dictator to establish an Islamic theocracy; I don’t remember seeing that in the brochure.

But you’re reading this on the other side of the world. Why should you even care about Iraq?

For starters, there’s the very real prospect of gas costing $3 per gallon by Christmas. So be sure to ask Santa for a hybrid car this year.

Second, America has poured an enormous amount of money into Iraq. Some might argue that the money would be better spent on feeding the hungry, sheltering the homeless or repairing the country’s infrastructure.

To paraphrase Dwight Eisenhower, every bomb dropped on Iraq takes money out of the pockets of each of us, our schools and our federal student loan funds.

Furthermore, every bomb dropped creates more insurgents. Every American bullet fired pours fuel on the flame of anti-American hatred. Ultimately, we are creating more terrorists to fight.

And perhaps most importantly, it is our friends and neighbors who are fighting this war.

DeKalb resident Matt Swanson is a veteran of the Iraq war. As a lance corporal in the Marines, Swanson’s duties included tactical movement control – he provided security as a military policeman, secured supply routes for fuel trucks and also set up checkpoints for convoys.

He used to think the U.S. should stay in Iraq and get the job done, but during the course of his tour, his views evolved.

“The fact is that the insurgency doesn’t appear to be dying,” says Swanson, “And the fact that we’re there pressing our beliefs and our culture on them – that’s the root of it. Our presence over there is creating our own enemies. I don’t think there’s any way to get [Iraq] more under control than it is now.”

Swanson’s words carry weight for several reasons. He’s not looking for publicity beyond the very modest audience of this column; I sought him out. He’s a first-hand witness – he’s seen what Iraq has become.

And what it’s become is an unmitigated disaster, which it has been from nearly the beginning.

From the undermanned invasion to the shortage of body armor for the troops, the planning and execution of the war has been abysmal.

We were more interested in securing the oil fields than munitions dumps, which allowed a large cache of weapons to fall into the hands of the insurgents. And as time goes on, Iraq gets less and less stable even as our leaders tell us we’re winning the war.

How goofy does that “Mission Accomplished” flight suit photo-op look now?

It’s time to leave Iraq. The situation is broken and the people in charge have neither the credibility nor the goodwill necessary to mend it.

Veteran Matt Swanson says it all: “This isn’t a winnable war, but it’s not a losable war either. If we stay there forever, we can’t really lose it. But we can’t really win it.”

Columns reflect the opinion of the author and not necessarily that of the Northern Star staff.