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This Week's Attitude
Neither "staying the course" for Iraqi freedom nor the negligible success of last year's surge can rationalize an annual average of 800 GI deaths since 2003. Stability in that nation - and region - is flimsier than the president's laundry list of excuses for invading it in the first place. War on terror? Who's President Bush kidding? We got sidetracked from that long ago. By perpetuating the existing strategy, American forces have as much of a chance of capturing Osama bin Laden - the mastermind of 9/11 - as I'd have of finishing the New York City marathon. And what's it all been for Is America any better today than five years ago? Hardly. In addition to the war's tragic human toll of dead, wounded and their families, its multi-trillion dollar price tag - so far - has decimated the economy and eradicated a once robust budget surplus into an enormous deficit, leaving us in a near recession abetted by the sub-prime mortgage crisis.
Does anyone in our government or military have faith that Iraq can be transformed into a practical democracy able to stand on its own in this lifetime? It was a misguided, self-serving American notion that had little chance of success following centuries of sectarian - mostly Sunnis and Shiites - violence, with external militias added to the volatile mix since we arrived. Even if we maintain a hundred-year presence, as GOP hopeful Sen. John McCain suggested may be necessary, or even the decade the president indicated, it's unlikely future generations of warring Muslim factions will ever compromise. The baseless motives for starting the war - from weapons of mass destruction to Saddam Hussein's ties to the terrorist attacks - have all been debunked, reinforcing the principle that truth is the first casualty of war. And the overconfidence of the invasion's initial Shock-and-Awe barrage came and went before a thorough, long-term strategy was developed. With an available catalog of evidence, Americans know now how Congress and the public were duped and calculatedly misled by George W. Bush and his inner circle, who made the facts fit the case for war and led the nation to believe it would last only weeks or months, but has lasted longer than any other in our history. (It's the third longest conflict, behind Vietnam and the Revolutionary wars.) Mission accomplished? The staged photo of the president on the deck of an aircraft carrier, as he declared victory to its crew almost five years ago, should be revived to jog the memories of Americans tired of the war so they vote only for candidates who pledge to draft and initiate a timely exit soon after succeeding George Bush. Three years ago when he addressed the nation, as confidence in him waned and the war effort expanded, the president blithely said, "A stable and democratic Iraq would be worth American sacrifices." That outlook was endorsed during a news conference in Baghdad, when the vice president maintained that the war has been "well worth the effort." After recently asked by a reporter how he feels that two-thirds of Americans polled said it's not worth fighting in Iraq because "the cost in lives exceeds the gains," Vice President Dick Cheney replied, "So?" When he attempted to clarify the brusque remark, he had the effrontery to claim the president has suffered "the greatest burden" since the war began, without regard for the families of the dead and wounded soldiers. Those reactions display a distinct contempt for public opinion and revealed the insensitivity of the man, who is the only remaining member of the administration's unholy trinity - along with former advisor Karl Rove and former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld - that steadfastly advocated the war simply to satisfy a distorted brand of expedient patriotism, wholly knowing their motives were basically trumped up. Dick Cheney emits an aura of a smug, callous bastard who's colder than a typical San Francisco August. His primary concern seems only to have been to help engineer the Iraqi war to assure his Halliburton buddies got no-bid contracts and continue to profit while American GIs keep dying. How many family members of the 4,000 soldiers who've died would agree? How many physically and psychologically wounded soldiers (roughly 60,000) think their gallant service was overlooked by the inadequate care many of them came home to? How many more lives could have been saved if there wasn't a failure of effort, magnified by a shortage of materials and inadequate equipment? Last week, at an Ohio Air Force base to mark the war's anniversary, President Bush indicated the planned withdrawal of a portion of the 157,000 the troops this summer could be delayed because the military must assess its impact before it is executed. For those who forgot, that troop reduction would only trim levels to where they were before the surge. When I found previous columns to recall what I'd previously written about the Iraq War, I'd forgotten how uncharacteristically charitable I was following George W. Bush's first swearing in: "Perhaps this inauguration will usher in an era of steady, fair and reliable leadership…If George Bush can bring about 'inclusion and unity' to fulfill his promise to lead the nation with 'civility, courage and compassion,' he may accomplish what few of his predecessors could…" Silly me being so optimistic. Seven years later it's painfully obvious this president has terribly failed the nation, while systematically eroding Constitutional executive power and forging a dreadful legacy enhanced by failure and incompetence. Administration officials repeatedly assured the nation there were details that had to be kept confidential, however, we pretty much know now those details would have aroused a public outcry, in spite of the lingering rage from 9/11. The remaining days of the Bush administration can't pass quickly enough. Perhaps a successor can steer the ship of state back on course and restore its flawed reputation. There I go again, being overly optimistic. Coupled with the sacrifice of 4,000 troops - with an average age of 21 - and the thousands of wounded, it doesn't appear, as Sen. McCain recently said, that we are on "the precipice of a major victory." Instead, it appears we are bogged down in a protracted conflict that continues to deprive the nation of its venerable image, its revenue and, most regrettably, honorable members of the next generation.
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