"THE PASS of the Moor's Sigh" is the place on the outskirts of a city in Spain where its last Moorish ruler, upon being expelled from Iberia, stopped to weep. His companion rebuked him, as the writer Robert Grudin recounts, for waiting until all was lost to express his feeling. Why did he not manifest his devotion to his realm before, when a different outcome was still possible?
That is the opening paragraph of this op ed piece by James Carroll in today's Boston Globe. The title of the piece, which I urge you to read, is the same as the title of this diary. Here are two more brief quotes, each one sentence:
What happens when a president's dogged determination begins to show itself as an obsessive irrationality?
How bad do things have to get before the co-equal branch of the US government begins to act?
Tomorrow's State of the Union is being greatly anticipated around Washington circles. Many expect that Bush will finally address global warming. He is also expected to address health care, unfortunately apparently by taxing middle class insurance benefits. It is not clear how much speech will address the elephant in the room, Iraq, given his address of last week, one that most commentators now acknowledge did little to gain or hold support for his position, and that ws before the loss of 25 Americans in one day, the third heaviest level of fatalities since we invaded.
The selection of Senator Webb to give the Democratic response raises expectations that he will in some way address Iraq. It is also quite possible that he will address issues of economic justice and equity, given that it was a part of his campaign and is also a subject to which he has since returned, notably in his op ed piece for the Wall Street Journal.
But let us remain focused on Iraq for a moment. Carroll frames his piece using the reference to the last Moorish ruler. He is challenging this nation, and our political elite, not to wait until it is too late. He notes that many Americans feel they are being driven out of their own country, and that there is as we anticipate tomorrow's speech an air of unreality over the country.
He offers many challenges. The next two both occur in one paragraph:
Bush's latest rationale for this war is to act in support of "the Iraqi military," but does any such entity exist? Does defending the openly tribal government of Nouri al-Maliki mean that US soldiers are now an adjunct to Shi'ite death squads, even while being their target?
And when insanity rules, does the fact that an air attack on Iran's nuclear facility would be insane any longer mean it will not happen?
Insanity. Does that mean the emperor president has no clothes, metaphorically speaking?
A question: How can otherwise rational policy makers and military leaders continue to cooperate in this madness?
Does not that challenge apply to each of us, to make our voices heard to all of our elected representatives, be they Democratic or Republican? Carroll argues that if Congress were to derail Bush's planned escalation, perhaps the voices of the American people that oppose it would be heard, that we could support the troops by beginning to bring them home.
But if we don't? Carroll ends with questions that we, and all who aspire to lead us, should consider:
Or will the political leadership of the United States wait until it is too late? Like the last Moor of Iberia, will Congress decline to express itself when the crucial difference could be made? Who then will sympathize with their regret, or care about their weeping? Much less vote for them when they run for president?
All of us need to speak out now, and require of all who seek to lead us that they do so as well. There is already too much weeping because of the folly of Iraq.