By Drew MillardWar… what is it good for? Absolutely nothing. Now for those of you who think that I just ripped that out of a song title, you’re right. However, Edwin Starr was on to something. Why are we in Iraq? Are we trying to save ourselves from terrorists? Are we there to “finish the job?” Do we feel like we need to retaliate against Al Qaeda for the September 11 attacks? Do we have to save the Iraqi people? Or do we just need to show them durned Muslims who the boss is? The answer to all of these questions, of course, is, “Uh……”
Now I know that those of you who read this column on an at least semi-regular basis can tell pretty easily that I lean quite emphatically to the political left. I am not, however, one of those smelly vegans who want to save the universe, one Rwandan genocide at a time. I try to think with my head, and most of the time, I find myself being quite open-minded and pacifistic. Ergo, I am anti-war. Now, some of you may be tempted to put down this newspaper in disgust, but I urge you, please do not. I’m not dumb enough to propose conspiracy theories involving Haliburton and the Military-Industrial Complex. But some things do make you wonder…
Why are we in Iraq? You know what? I don’t know. I was thirteen at the time this war first started, and the first time I realized that some people had a problem with going to war was during the Oscar telecast of that year when filmmaker Michael Moore was booed off the stage because he used his acceptance speech as a platform for making anti-war remarks. So to say that I didn’t have a grasp of what was actually happening at that time is vast understatement. When I tried to actually find out why we went to Iraq, all I could find was partisan rhetoric from both the left and the right of the political spectrum. So after trying to get both sides of the story, I guess we invaded Iraq for a number of reasons which include (but are definitely not limited to) national security, humanitarian action to defeat an evil dictator, oil, a US foothold in the Middle East, the tumultuous aftermath of the 9/11 attacks, the threat of Weapons of Mass Destruction, a pre-emptive strike on Iraq before Saddam got too bomb-happy and decided to take potshots at Washington DC, and of course, the Chicago Bears. In fact, it might have even been a good idea to invade at the time, but since we have invaded, we have made several serious mistakes, which many other people more intelligent and more qualified than I have either attacked or explained.
But now that America is in Iraq, what are we to do? Without the guiding hands of US forces, the country would be in shambles. The Sunnis and Shiites are at each other’s throats, and they’re both looking to our army for protection from the other side. But at the same time, the Sunnis are trying to attack the Shiites, and the Shiites are trying to attack the Sunnis, all when we’re not looking. So say that the US just packs up and leaves tomorrow, taking all of our troops out of Iraq. Then the Shiites declare jihad on the Sunnis and vice versa, and the population of Iraq gets decimated by civil war. So the United States, unfortunately, seems to be stuck in Iraq until further notice. Fun, right?
I have no idea how the United States might be able to extricate itself from this quagmire. My only hope about this is that the government doesn’t reinstitute the draft, and the only thing I’m happy about is that I’m not the one who has to deal with all of this mess. That, of course, would be our President and his successor.
5 comments:
We have bought into the Military Industrial Complex (MIC). If you would like to read this happens please see:
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2007/03/spyagency200703
Through a combination of public apathy and threats by the MIC we have let the SYSTEM get too large. It is now a SYSTEMIC problem and the SYSTEM is out of control. Government and industry are merging and that is very dangerous.
I am a 2 tour Vietnam Veteran who recently retired after 36 years of working in the Defense Industrial Complex on many of the weapons systems being used by our forces as we speak.
There is no conspiracy. The SYSTEM has gotten so big that those who make it up and run it day to day in industry and government simply are perpetuating their existance.
The politicians rely on them for details and recommendations because they cannot possibly grasp the nuances of the environment and the BIG SYSTEM.
So, the system has to go bust and then be re-scaled, fixed and re-designed to run efficiently and prudently, just like any other big machine that runs poorly or becomes obsolete or dangerous.
This situation will right itself through trauma. I see a government ENRON on the horizon, with an associated house cleaning.
The next president will come and go along with his appointees and politicos. The event to watch is the collapse of the MIC.
For more details see:
http://www.rosecoveredglasses.blogspot.com
Drew,
I too was ushered into this modern world's political unrest with headphones on. I wasn't even listening to anything remotely as subliminal (or frank, for that matter) as Edwin Starr; if I can recall correctly, I had N'Sync spinning in my CD player at the time, or was singing merrily along with Limp Bizkit. Like you, I have quietly questioned the mass media coverage on the current war with Iraq that seeps into my otherwise meaningless daily routine.
Adorned with earbuds and with an Ipod slung into the back pocket of my jeans, I'd see news coverage on a television screen I might have passed on my way to buy something cheap and unhealthy. Automatically, I would think something along the lines of,
"There they are again: the smart people."
So don't get me wrong when I get to the point here--I'm just another kid without a care in the world. Just somebody, but most importantly, nobody when it comes to anything that requires having an opinion. What the heck is that? The numbers on that side of the screen are larger--I'll go with that. Can I get back to this rerun of House now?
I think it's time you and I and everybody else start believing that we are in the midst of something side by side. Being American is one thing, but there are other people in other countries who are just as puzzled, if not clueless, about whatever the heck is going on right now.
Since we're not the political elite, we so easily admit that our questions ultimately don't matter, what we don't know doesn't hurt us, and that making a difference about all the bad stuff happening is someone else's job. I personally don't find this point of view wrong... In fact, it's comforting. If Korea accidentally smacks their detonators in the middle of a sneeze tomorrow, well... it'll all be a surprise to me. I had Wendy's for lunch and laughed with a friend. No acts of terrorism or even jaywalking on my record. If the world just ended, it had nothing to do with me.
I don't mean to insult your intelligence, and I'm attempting to mimic your laid-back writing style. I've 'heard' you, so to speak. I can relate to you. It's when you say you're happy this isn't your ship to steer that got my wheels cranking. Something about that struck me, and I wanted to pass on to you that I think you're wrong about that.
What happened on 9/11 is spiralling into mystery faster every day; I am not confident that anyone will ever have the absolute truth. No, not in my lifetime. But the causes and effects of that tragedy have been ours to feel affected by the entire time. Like you, I can ask all day, "Why ARE we there?"
But for me, leaving the answers for the big guys to tell us just doesn't set right. I'm a bit older now and have since upgraded to the (very intellectual and practical, of course) likes of Franz Ferdinand and Panic! At the Disco. But the volume's a little lower, I've noticed. I'm paying a little more attention to the TV screens through the window glass.
You're right. Let's ask questions. Lots of them.
Maybe we can get on our ways to answering some of them, too. I really hope so.
Might is past tense. The title of your column should read: "The column that may get me fired." The editors probably should have caught that one though.
"The poem that may get me fired" Watch out for the grammar!
Rosecovered, you may very well be right I hope that we can one day be able to move on from the MIC.
As for you, Jack, I have the following to say: the point I tried to make with the column is that the situation at hand is vastly more complicated than the media--on both the right and left wings--lets on. From the information that I have been able to gather, I've realized that either way, the United States is up a creek without a paddle. If we stay in Iraq, we open ourselves to criticism from the rest of the world, as well as sacrifice some soldiers here and there. If we go, our departure could be taken as a sign of weakness concerning our foreign policy, as well as (perhaps) provide justification for future terrorist attacks. So to borrow a phrase from the Clash, if we stay there will be trouble, if we go it will be double.
Also, I find that it's best to remain neutral on political issues, because hey, everything's complicated. I've found that having an opinion on something as polarizing as Iraq is essentially meaningless, because either side has massive holes in its argument. I don't think that I would be able to sleep at night if I were to side with the left, whose advocacy of pulling out of Iraq is irresponsible, seeing as how if we left, the country would go from civil war to genocide, or the right, whose bullheaded insistence on staying in Iraq is getting our troops killed and not helping the Iraqi people.
Dude...the point I'm trying to make is that the big guys don't have the answers either. Nobody does. And if people think that they do, they're usually wrong and you can't have an intelligent conversation with them, at least without banging your skull against a wall.
Also, I sometimes question why we're in Iraq at all. There is a worse situation in Africa that requires immediate attention (Darfur!) that's getting no love at all from the US government. I don't know. I just don't know.
Oh, and PS. If anybody's going to get us, it'll be the Chinese. North Korea doesn't have the nuclear capacity to destroy a poodle.
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