Holding back the dark

Here's an insightful quote from Robert Kaplan's recent WSJ article:

"The American military now has the most thankless task of any military in the history of warfare: to provide the security armature for an emerging global civilization that, the more it matures -- with its own mass media and governing structures -- the less credit and sympathy it will grant to the very troops who have risked and, indeed, given their lives for it."

As Wretchard summarizes the article, the challenge facing the American military is not to establish a concrete exit strategy, but to "hold back the dark until a new global civilization can find its footing."

This assessment is disconcerting because it illustrates the immensity of the task ahead. Success in Iraq, in Kaplan's view, will require the patience to wait out the period of instability caused by the political void that has been created in the absence of Saddam's regime. We are probably going to be in Iraq for much longer than most people realize. Only time will tell whether the American people will tolerate the costs (both in dollars and in lives) which the necessary cultural repair requires.

Read the whole WSJ article here. (registration required)

(Hat tip to Belmont Club for the heads up)