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Show ^Opinion Friday, Sept. 14, 2007 Page 13 Performance: Looking over shoulders \M continued from page 12 if this is a cause our people should be fighting for. Despite the obvious danger, would you encourage your brothers and sisters, sons and daughters to be involved in such a task? Would we, given the circumstances were on a more personal basis, relinquish our determined spirit if the Iraqi people fighting were our close relatives? No one lets the family reunion get a little homicidal without a touch of concern. In the balance hangs the very safety of our American family. Justice holds this frightening scale while she tip toes around the obstacles of our varied desires. The sacrifice of so many people is lost if she takes a wrong step. Petraeus recognized the reality of wartime effects when he said, "I'm as frustrated with the situation as anybody else. This is going on three years for me, on top of a year deployment to Bosnia as well. So, my family also knows something about sacrifice." Are we prone to be as honest with ourselves as he is? He's there and he's recommending we share in the burden they have a little longer. When George Washington (yes, the original and namesake of our nation's capital city) stood strong while surrounding Boston in the early years of the American Revolution, he also had concerns for the length of the war. Troops from all over the emerging nation were anxious to be done with their terms of service and return to their homes. Many were physically ill and wished for a warmer place to sleep. Looking back in history, it's easy for us to appreciate the value they all suffered for. It eventually united them but certainly had the ability to tear them apart. What tipped the scales? Are we now willing to suffer through the winter of this desert war? Willing to suffer for another people with different customs and different stories? Those people may honor our names as we now do Washington's. They're our family - only thousands of miles apart. The only principle shared among our people now appears to be the animosity behind the true source of all war: the belief of 'I'm right and you are wrong/ As this complicated war comes to an arduous step in the path to a better world, I hope we can ease the war between ourselves here - now. Jacob Fullmer is a junior in political science and journalism, working as an intern where history happens for the fall semester. He may be reached at j.ful!mer@aggiemail.usu. edu. Bipartisan: Politics prevent progress [Mcontinued from page 12 Gilchrest and North Carolina's Walter Jones) already have drawn primary challenges from war supporters. (So had Nebraska's Chuck Hagel, the most skeptical GOP senator, before he announced Monday that he was retiring.) Democrats also face growing pressure for a hard line. The liberal advocacy group MoveOn. org chose last weekend to poll its members on whether to finance primary challenges against congressional Democrats "who side with the president on Iraq." And in the days before Petraeus' testimony, liberal Web sites crackled with outrage that Democratic leaders were considering compromises intended to attract more Republicans to bipartisan Iraq legislation. Each side's accusations against the other have reached a fevered, destructive pitch. Republicans recklessly have charged that Democrats who support a timetable for withdrawing American troops are setting a "date for surrender." MoveOn. org this week hurt its cause with a spectacularly unseemly newspaper ad attacking Petraeus' credibility. Tnis is no way to fight a war, or even to end one. For now, congressional stalemate benefits Bush, because it means Democrats can't force him to end the surge before he's ready. But the hardening partisan divide increasingly is defining the war as a GOP-only enterprise, and no war can be fought for long as the project of a single political party. It doesn't have to be this way. More and more leading Democrats are willing to maintain an American force in Iraq (for training, border security and counterterrorism) after the direct U.S. combat role diminishes. More and more congressional Republicans understand that the United Stales cannot shoulder that front-line combat responsibility indefinitely. The challenge is uniting a critical mass in both parties on a path from today's sprawl• IT, «•[-[, ing American presence to a T \ " . L-X f lesser but more durable role. Ronald Brownstein is the national affairs columnist for the tos Angeles Times. 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