Where were you three years ago today, when the U.S. took Iraq? What were you doing when the statue of Saddam came down? Did you watch it on TV? I remember watching it on the evening news when I got home from work in Glasgow.

That was when we thought we had won the war. It was as easy as Desert Storm had been. A few weeks more and we could go home. Another war won live on television. How wrong we were. Here we are, three years later, still waiting. I remarked to my husband this morning that all these "insurgents" (read: murdering swine) are not Baathists - hell, half of them aren't even Iraqi. They were just looking for an excuse to kill, and the chaos that ensued after the fall of Saddam gave them the cover they needed. They are no more saddened over his toppling than I am. They just want to kill people. And that is the very reason why we can't give up. We can't let them win. We have to stay for as long as it takes - it's not America's style - nor Britain's - to just give up when things get hard. And they are hard now.

In our culture, as it is today, we are not really accustomed to not getting our own way. We have services, pills, regulations etc that see to it that our every whim is fulfilled without too much resistance. Your butt sags? Well, you could work out on the stair master, or you could just go get liposuction. Your kid is rowdy? Don't bother with discipline - just give him Ritalin. Nextdoor neighbor's tree hanging over your fence? Well, you could try making friends with the guy and then asking nicely, but isn't it faster to just take him to court? We have dishwashers to take care of the after dinner mess, concierge services to pick up our dry cleaning, dog walkers so we don't have to worry about Fido - we are spoiled rotten. We are completely unaccustomed to waiting for anything, or trying too hard. Heck - who still even has dial-up in this day and age?? And having 24 hour news services doesn't exactly help. We get bored watching the same part of the story over and over, waiting for something new to happen. Well, right now nothing new is happening. So you might as well take a walk (or drive your SUV) up to Starbucks and grab a latte. It's going to be a long wait. Having to wait is about the only thing that might be different for some.