DRMIZER
12-01-2003, 11:47 AM
We are a nation at war. At war with Iraq, at war with international terrorism, and, sadly, at war with ourselves.
Fully 50 percent of Americans believe we should have never set foot in Iraq while the rest believe, even absent the reasons given for that war, we should be there.
Some on the right accuse critics of the war of virtual treason against the nation, while others on the left believe that, in the words of former Yale chaplain Sloane Coffin; "Dissent is not disloyalty. What is unpatriotic is subservience."
There seems little middle ground in this debate, and I frankly struggle to find moderation in my own outlook that for innumerable reasons we should be in a different place, albeit not too distant from Iraq.
Compare the cost to our fighting men and women in Iraq, besieged, wounded and killed in the original battle and now in guerrilla warfare; the cost to our national treasure; the cost of world respect; then make the comparison and the likely consequence had we put 150,000 of our armed forces into Afghanistan instead of Iraq.
There, with a broad coalition and the unstinting cooperation of peace-loving nations, we could have far more easily brought that country into a 21st century democracy ---- a first step toward opening up the entire Middle East to the advantages of freedom.
The promise of a free Afghanistan nation is now reduced to one city: Kabul. Quickly becoming once again the world's largest supplier of opium, Afghanistan's fields of poppies are surrounded by warlords, violence and corruption. While we send off $80 billion to Iraq, we grant less than $2 billion to Afghanistan. We have failed to deliver on our promise there, just as time may tell we also failed in Iraq.
Iraq might have been next on the military agenda, but had we waited a month or six, the U.N. inspectors might have unequivocally proven, as we now know, that weapons of mass destruction did not exist, making moot the need to go to war.
Yes, Hussein was evil. But he was not alone in the world, as any number of citizens in Serbia or Africa could quickly point out, and an evil dictator is not necessarily an international terrorist. Hussein was an offense to decency but posed no immediate threat to the world.
Instead, into Iraq hell-bent we went, persuaded, as mounting evidence shows, by spin and lies and grand misleading statements from a coterie of exiles and neocons who grabbed the ear of Vice Preisdent Dick Cheney, who in turn inflamed the fervor of an unsophisticated president.
"Bring 'em on," President Bush said, following his glamorous descent to an aircraft carrier where he declared the end to hostilities. And on they came; estimates now range as high as 50,000 of 'em, and no one in the administration will touch a guesstimate of what this will cost us in treasured lives.
Except for those on the front lines, those who lie wounded, those whose families now have nothing left but a dog tag, a picture and a neatly folded flag, we as a nation have been asked to do nothing but go shopping and pledge allegiance to a man who has managed to divide us as no other president in living memory.
That we support our troops cannot be denied, and should never be questioned. When they return, they will be honored and they will have tales to tell and questions to ask. They deserve our ears and our answers.
That we should look with pride and trust to a man who put these men and women at grave risk under false premises, who squandered the good will of nations, to say nothing of lost opportunities, and whose actions have polarized the country, is incomprehensible to me.
Indeed, we are a nation at war.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2003/11/29/opinion/11_28_0322_06_47.txt
Fully 50 percent of Americans believe we should have never set foot in Iraq while the rest believe, even absent the reasons given for that war, we should be there.
Some on the right accuse critics of the war of virtual treason against the nation, while others on the left believe that, in the words of former Yale chaplain Sloane Coffin; "Dissent is not disloyalty. What is unpatriotic is subservience."
There seems little middle ground in this debate, and I frankly struggle to find moderation in my own outlook that for innumerable reasons we should be in a different place, albeit not too distant from Iraq.
Compare the cost to our fighting men and women in Iraq, besieged, wounded and killed in the original battle and now in guerrilla warfare; the cost to our national treasure; the cost of world respect; then make the comparison and the likely consequence had we put 150,000 of our armed forces into Afghanistan instead of Iraq.
There, with a broad coalition and the unstinting cooperation of peace-loving nations, we could have far more easily brought that country into a 21st century democracy ---- a first step toward opening up the entire Middle East to the advantages of freedom.
The promise of a free Afghanistan nation is now reduced to one city: Kabul. Quickly becoming once again the world's largest supplier of opium, Afghanistan's fields of poppies are surrounded by warlords, violence and corruption. While we send off $80 billion to Iraq, we grant less than $2 billion to Afghanistan. We have failed to deliver on our promise there, just as time may tell we also failed in Iraq.
Iraq might have been next on the military agenda, but had we waited a month or six, the U.N. inspectors might have unequivocally proven, as we now know, that weapons of mass destruction did not exist, making moot the need to go to war.
Yes, Hussein was evil. But he was not alone in the world, as any number of citizens in Serbia or Africa could quickly point out, and an evil dictator is not necessarily an international terrorist. Hussein was an offense to decency but posed no immediate threat to the world.
Instead, into Iraq hell-bent we went, persuaded, as mounting evidence shows, by spin and lies and grand misleading statements from a coterie of exiles and neocons who grabbed the ear of Vice Preisdent Dick Cheney, who in turn inflamed the fervor of an unsophisticated president.
"Bring 'em on," President Bush said, following his glamorous descent to an aircraft carrier where he declared the end to hostilities. And on they came; estimates now range as high as 50,000 of 'em, and no one in the administration will touch a guesstimate of what this will cost us in treasured lives.
Except for those on the front lines, those who lie wounded, those whose families now have nothing left but a dog tag, a picture and a neatly folded flag, we as a nation have been asked to do nothing but go shopping and pledge allegiance to a man who has managed to divide us as no other president in living memory.
That we support our troops cannot be denied, and should never be questioned. When they return, they will be honored and they will have tales to tell and questions to ask. They deserve our ears and our answers.
That we should look with pride and trust to a man who put these men and women at grave risk under false premises, who squandered the good will of nations, to say nothing of lost opportunities, and whose actions have polarized the country, is incomprehensible to me.
Indeed, we are a nation at war.
http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2003/11/29/opinion/11_28_0322_06_47.txt