January 4, 2007. There's no denying it any longer, the new year is upon us and everything we avoided until "next year" can no longer be put off. All those promises so piously sworn in the haze of the holidays now have to be faced, with some attempt made to live up to them, even if only for a few weeks. The holidays were, as always, much too short, and the next one is far, far away.

The resolutions most of us make are the same every year; lead a healthier lifestyle, heal our relationships, get out of debt, or just try and relax a bit. They all share a desire to improve, to fix something inadequate or broken, and they recognize the negative aspects of our lives with painful specificity. To make a resolution is to acknowledge that something might be seriously wrong. But resolutions also speak of hope, and allow us to dream of what could possibly be, with enough resolve. A life more in harmony with our beliefs and ideals awaits us, if only we have the strength.

In the safety and comfort of home, we have the luxury to choose how we might better ourselves. Others are not so fortunate.

On the last day of 2006, Specialist Dustin R. Donica, age 22, of Spring, Texas was shot and killed in Baghdad, becoming the 3000th American soldier to die in Iraq. The fact that such a grim milestone was reached on the last day of the year is, of course, purely coincidental, but round numbers and significant dates often provide a clarity that day-to-day statistics do not. The day before, a haggard and beaten Saddam Hussein was executed in a windowless room somewhere else in Iraq, his executioners hooded, well-armed, and nervous. His killing seemed no less anarchic than the many other executions so widely broadcast in this war. The last weekend of 2006 offered us twin pictures of ideals gone terribly astray.

As a nation we took an extended holiday from the reality of war, a war bought on credit and wrapped in so much tinsel, glittery paper and waving flags that it has taken years to open the box and finally see it for what it is. And now that we do see it, and may even be able to face our responsibility, it is time to resolve to make it right.

So we propose a simple New Year's resolution for our country, in the spirit of the more personal resolutions each of us might have made for 2007. End this divisive, soul-destroying and shameful war. Bring the troops home, and start this week.

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