This is my first diary. Though I've been lurking here since 2003 and went to Yearly Kos in Las Vegas, I've never felt compelled to diary, leaving that to others with more commitment.
However, I've now got an idea that won't go away, and I'd like to get comments and critique. But a bit of background.....
When America left Vietnam, we did so with bitterness and shame. Those of us who fought there were ashamed of how badly we had fucked that country over, physically, economically and psychologically. The chickenhawks were bitter that we hadn't "finished the job", probably because we didn't nuke Hanoi and Haiphong. But both groups worked hard to ignore and punish Vietnam for having the audacity to defeat us.
We didn't want to have anything to do with Vietnam for over a quarter of a century - no diplomatic recognition, no trade, and even no travel except through third countries. And yet, when we finally started to return, we found that the Vietnamese were welcoming and in fact had done a better job of putting the war behind them than we had.
Anyhow, I've been thinking about what could happen in Iraq after we withdraw and what role the netroots could play.
Now I know we will never leave Iraq completely - control of trillions of dollars worth of proven oil reserves is never going to be given back to anyone, particularly since we've already spent a trillion dollars to grab it. But it's likely we will withdraw to a handful of super bases and let the Iraqis get on with whatever they are going to do. Some think chaos, or partition, or maybe things will calm down.
No matter what happens, we caused this mess. You know it, I know it, the world knows it and, most of all the Iraqis know it. And what are we going to do about it?? Well, given that the United States government has never admitted that it has ever done wrong in its entire history, I doubt the next administration would have the political will or moral courage to tell the Iraqi people "We're sorry. We really screwed up and we regret it." Won't happen. At least on the government to government level.
So that's what I've been thinking about. Given the societal transformations the Internet is beginning to incubate, is there a way to bypass the government and show the Iraqi people we are really sorry and want to make amends for the "worst foreign policy failure in American history"?
My early education was in demographics and statistics, and I seem to always view situations from a quantitative perspective. So, let's run a few numbers - 300,000,000 Americans 25,000,000 Iraqis means 12 Americans for every Iraqi. Typical Iraqi family with six members would be equivalent to 72 Americans. Why not establish direct links?
Yeah, yeah, I know there's a shitload of Americans who don't give a fuck about anybody but themselves. But there's also a sizable chunk of Iraqis who are rich enough to take care of themselves, or rural enough to have not been harmed by the occupiers or the insurgents. But those that need help, and those who want to help could be connected. Each member of the American group could come to know every member of the Iraqi family and learn what their lives are all about (which would have been pretty fucking useful in 2002).
Suppose you and 50 of your friends could be introduced to an Iraqi family through some site, perhaps developed by GIs and Iraqi students, where your group could learn all about that family's needs and problems. Help could be funneled through PayPal, contacts through YouTube, who knows how the Web could bring them together. Hell, probably one of your friends is trying to get rid of an old computer right now and could send it to the Iraqis. We need lots of creativity for this.
However, there is one critical element which must be the foundation of any such effort. We should be doing it not out of charity, not out of love or any other humanitarian impulse. It should be done because we are sorry for what has been done in our name, and we seek forgiveness and want to atone for our sins. We wouldn't be doing it to make us feel good. We'd do it because we had done wrong, and want the world to know it - the American people, not our government, is truly sorry for what has been done.
Anyone care to comment?