I’m going to try and tell a narrative that I feel pertains particularly to the present predicament placed upon us by our presence in Iraq.
Is that enough to get you to jump on over?
I’m a typical, poor college student. I’m of the variety that got a late start; I had too much fun after high school and took a few years off of college, if you know what I mean. By the way, I wouldn’t trade those years back for anything. I’ll just mention here that in the period between my triumphant return to academia and now, I picked up a passion for a genre of music known a drum ‘n bass, earned a degree in engineering, and relocated from big city Cleveland, Ohio to small town Charleston, South Carolina for further education. I am currently earning a degree in physics, and additionally -- and currently my field of choice -- political science. But I digress...
When it comes to politics I’m a progressive. On a majority of domestic issues I stand side by side all of you against the closed mind of conservatism. I’m little more in the center when it comes to foreign policy. It wasn’t until after reading the writings of Robert Baer and shortly thereafter living trough the horrors of 11 September 2001 that I became conscience of politics. I cheered the invasion of Afghanistan. I feel it was the right thing to do. I regret that we took so much time getting at it in the first place and that we then forgot about it after a few short years. With respect to Iraq, I was confident that it was the wrong thing to do even if Saddam indeed possessed the means they were said to have possessed and the capacity to acquire the ends we were led to believe they sought. I pleaded to my family and friends that Iraq would be turned into a killing field, that massive amount of treasure and human life would be squandered, and that the only result -- regardless of political and military might combined with infinite time -- would be a regional war and a restructured Middle East including a partitioned Iraq. Not to mention a potential economic crisis. And for God’s sake, you don’t go dancing through the contemporary Middle East spreading democracy until after you clean up your image. To me, war is inevitable and to those that disagree: I envy your optimism. I am however, like victim of state terrorism Ambassador Joe Wilson says, anti-dumb war. Needless to say, most of my friends and family have -- at disparate rates -- come around. Others refuse to speak to me. All know now that when put up against most pre-war analysis, I was right. And I am so sorry that that is the truth.
Which brings us to the present... I happen to be inclined to allow General Petraeus to try his strategy in Iraq and I believe that any rapid withdrawal would not be in the national interest (emphasis on ‘rapid’). I also believe that any dissention from the Congress, the media, and the public is warranted and necessary, perhaps vital given the record of this administration and the alternative directions available to them. Had I held the highest seat of the Executive and had Curtis-Wright in my pocket I would have never have enter Iraq in the first place. In respect to more recent matters, I would have redeployed in 2005 and monitored the situation from the horizon, trading aide and support for results.
Last evening I was out on the town, but got an itch to go back to my place and spin some records. In the past most of my neighbors would be out and my complex would be virtually vacant; a perfect time to get down and be loud. But lately something’s been missing. The absent entity would be the soldier below me who just reenlisted into the Army at the age of 40-something because they needed his past experience desperately. Like any patriot he answered the call and is now in Afghanistan. Or it’s the Marine who is halfway through his second tour in Iraq, or the Seaman who lives in the building and whom I’ve never had the pleasure to meet but God willing I’ll have a chance to in the future. These heroes have left their friends, their families, their lives, and -- in some cases -- their kids behind. This is what has changed, for now when I come home to play on my turntables, I find the lot full of cars and condos full of brave but fearful family (whom I revere as unsung heroes that gracefully operate as if everything is fine despite the nearly imminent chance that some other American’s son or daughter will come knocking on their door to inform them of the ultimate price paid in the service of their country).
So that’s it. That is how I suffer on the home front in a time of war. I’m obligated to respect my neighbors who reside in their empty condo’s waiting for the next contact with their loved one. It’s a small token, and it is pathetic. We are in what we are told is the "decisive ideological struggle of our time" against an enemy who intends to "destroy our way of life." But we are not asked to contribute. There is no national effort to aide our heroes. I am not reminded of the stories passed along to me by my grandparents of the suffering they endured to defeat the decisive struggle of their day. There are no meaningful victory gardens, only hollow freedom fries. Until recently, there wasn’t even an effort to control our addictions to hydrocarbons, which is precisely the substance that necessitates so much attention to the region in question. But we do have tax breaks. We do have cheap gas. And we do have ill-equipped troops.
This war is no more justified now than it was in 2003 and the current rational for this conflict is on the verge of pathetic. On one hand, we are warned that a failed state in Iraq would decrease our national security. I am afraid that it is too late for this to be a warning but more of a presage. On the other hand, our national pride is stoked as we are reminded of the promises made and those brave women and men who have already suffered and/or paid the ultimate price. This is a fallacious argument and amounts to one saying "we’ve spent so much on our broken-down car, how could we possibly get rid of it?" As if throwing more life into the grinder will properly honor those who have sacrificed for failed policy already. As if more time will permit the nation to get their money’s worth out of Iraq.
We remain in Iraq because our national security policy has created a national security deficit, and we hold on to that deficit as we pray for the beliefs of idealist to bear fruit. It seems that there is little I can do to pay the price for the deeds of my nation other than spend money, buy ribbons, and hope bravery half a world away will produce that fruit. It’s a desperate hope, but it is all I got.