Looking back? Looking ahead? Living in the now.

It's been hard to think of what to write lately. A recap of the crazy, tumultuous, life-altering year that was 2007? And if so, do we focus on us? Iraq? Weave the two together? On the other hand, perhaps it's best to start a new year by looking forward, not back. Or, we could just recognize that the "new year" that started three days ago is simply an artifact of the Gregorian calendar and instead focus on current news without too much reflection on an artificial delineation of 12 months in either direction.

The news of the moment is, of course, the returns from the Iowa caucus. It's sad to see the Democratic field essentially whittled down to three after just one night. Particularly because three of the four who did not make the cut have such impressive records, particularly in foreign policy. Richardson - 15 years in Congress, Ambassador to the United Nations, Energy Secretary, Governor of New Mexico; Biden - 35 years in the Senate and Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; Dodd - 33 years in the House and Senate combined, son of a prosecutor at the Nuremberg Trials, and a senior member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Although experience is not always a guarantee of wise decision making (as Obama pointed out during his August appearance on the Daily Show, "nobody had a longer resume than Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld, and that hasn't worked out so well") it is sad that these men did not get a closer look, particularly from the media. Because, although the "subprime mortgage meltdown" seems to be turning this election year into another 1992 (it's the economy, stupid), Iraq and other foreign policy issues will continue to bedevil whoever wins in November.

In recent weeks, Iraq seems to have fallen off the front page. In a world of "if it bleeds, it leads" this is good news. Although we would hate to see George Bush go down in the history books as "the liberator of Iraq", the important thing is for stability to come back to the country so that people can live without the daily threats of bombings, kidnappings, abductions, and lots of other horrors that we can only imagine. And, as the news, or lack-there-of indicates, violence has subsided. Which is a good thing, because back in September we were on track to hit 4000 dead right around Christmas, and how demoralizing would that have been?

However, despite the improvements, all things bad - suicide bombers, car bombs, kidnappings, executions, firefights - have not gone away. Look beyond the first page, it's still there. Roughly 20 people a day, mostly Iraqis, are still casualties of Bush's war of choice. And you notice that after some initially crowing about the success of the surge, the White House is not trotting out the Mission Accomplished banner. The improvements are tenuous, parts of the country that were once relatively peaceful are experiencing increased violence, there is still no real diplomatic surge, and once again we are arming people for the immediate gain even though the long term consequences could be, can we say unpleasant?

Trying to guess what 2008 will bring is tough. Who knows what will happen? As Bob Herbert recently wrote in the New York Times, who could have anticipated 1968 as that year began? Hopefully 2008 will be nothing like that year. It will instead hopefully be a year of joy for all our friends who are expanding their families, a year of success for those starting new jobs or looking for one, a year when we repudiate the policies of the last eight years, and a year that ends with continued improvements towards peace in Iraq.