About 1,228 people were killed in the 34-day conflict in Lebanon. Compare that to the
3,500 Iraqis that died n July. Or to the nearly 18,000 died in the first seven months of this year.
Chris Shays has promised to hold hearings in a month on Iraq. In a month, of course, because with Iraq (and for Republicans specifically) there exists the luxury of time. There is no real public pressure to stop the bloodshed. There are no international press conferences. There are no heated questions from the press about when and where and how will this conflict come to an end. No, in Iraq, there is always time. Time to wait for the Iraqi government to get its shit together, time to wait for the militias to disarm, time to wait for the seeds of democracy to grow (and grow they will, after all, they are being watered by the blood of heroes).
So while Iraqis are dying by the thousands each month, while our government hems and haws and pencils in tentative hearings, and while more Americans die in a civil war they shouldn't be fighting, while we, bold and beautiful America, chose to wait the situation out, the rest of the international community follows our lead.
The President preaches patience, not urgent action. And so, we see consequence of American intervention: Iraq, once touched by the hand of American pre-emption, has contracted a type of international leprosy. Nations cringe away from dealing with the deteriorating situation there. It is America's Iraq, governed by Powell's Pottery Barn Rule. And since America is content with standing in quicksand, there's no need for the world to stretch out its hands.
We knew going in that invading Iraq would open up a Pandora's box. That prophesy of bombs and blood is playing itself out on the evening news every day. But as I watch the daily bloodshed, uncensored, raw, and unrelenting, I can't help but remember what else escaped from Pandora's box--Hope. It's difficult to hold onto hope for a peaceful Iraq when it seems the world has flinched and turned its eye away from the daily horror there. But there is always--there must always--be hope. There must be a revival of urgency, a call to arms and action, and a recognition that this war--like any war in any nation--must finally come to an end.
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