Today, as the fourth year of the greatest foreign policy disaster in American history rolls on, I stumbled across an old CNN article about the passage of the Iraq War Resolution way back on October 11th, 2002. You can read the article here
The article was quite a flashback for me, but not only because of the surprise from seeing the old layout from the CNN website (certainly not as many bells and whistles as it has today). Just reading the article made me reflect a lot on how I've changed in the last four years and how my political outlook has changed in the last four years.
In the meantime I've gone from being a loud, awkward high school freshmen to being a loud, awkward sophomore in college.
More importantly, however, during that time, 3,600 Americans have died needlessly, 25,000 Americans have been wounded in varying degrees needlessly, and a number of Iraqis have died so horrific that their deaths have passed from the 'tragedy' category and into the 'statistic' category, again, needlessly.
Back when I was a freshmen in high school and first getting into politics, I was extraordinarily angry with our political system. I was pissed at just about anything and anyone who didn't actively oppose this war. Being young at the time, I just naturally assumed that in order to go to war, the population as a whole had to be entirely convinced of a war's merit and was frustrated that the congress and the population as a whole seemed so lazy in their willingness to critically and thoroughly inspect something of such great importance. At no other time was I more disillusioned with America and what we supposedly stood for as a nation. I thought to myself, maybe my fifth grade US History teacher was wrong and we're not the most super-duper totally awesome, loved and envied by all nation that our school's textbooks would have us cracked up to be.
My anger at the time was mainly directed at George Bush, naturally, but at the same time, a very great portion of it was directed at Democrats. Were democrats not supposed to be the party of reason? I was flabbergasted that an opposition party could do such a shitty job, well...opposing.
I guess my point is that over the last four years, I have become significantly more jaded and the anger I once felt has somewhat subsided, or at least been refocused, very specifically on George W. Bush and right wing proponents of the war like John McCain.
Reading this article, however, brought back some of the old flame. Individuals caused this war, not parties or ideologies. Individuals opposed and supported this war, not voting blocs and think tanks. Ultimately, the anguish and suffering, death and destruction, loss of treasure, life and limb over the past four years, in this ENTIRELY avoidable conflict, was caused by a group of 77 INDIVIDUALS, whose job and sacred responsibility it was to thoroughly and critically inspect something of the utmost importance, in order to uphold peace and justice. Those 77 individuals failed; not as democrats, not as republicans, but as public servants and even more fundamentally, as human beings.
Ultimately, the responsibility of any and all actions falls not upon political, religious, racial, ethnic or national identity, but upon a man's conscience alone.
Twenty-Three men and women courageously opposed this war, many at great political risk like Ron Wyden or Kent Conrad. They opposed this war not because of the little letter next to their name, but because of their individual audacity, morality, their convictions and their belief in what is just. They should be remembered and respected for their individual courage
For today at least (or as long as this article and the vomit-inducing quotes from Dick Gephardt and Tom Daschle stay in my mind), I am again a pissed off high school freshmen, who couldn't give a damn about a person's political identity, if they didn't have the honesty and bravery to actively oppose this travesty.
"It is only to the individual that a soul is given. " - Albert Einstein