I decided to enroll in the journalism program at my alma mater, the University of California Santa Cruz, during the run-up to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, circa late 2002 and early 2003. UCSC was home to a trenchant anti-war movement, far more than in most of the country. For example, a 2,000-person demonstration against the impending US invasion of Afghanistan took place there on October 11, 2001. It was the first event I covered as a student journalist.
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“Kuwaitis, being altogether less misinformed than their American counterparts, saw Saddam Hussein as posing no threat.”
As well they might not, with 50,000 US troops camped out in the Kuwaiti desert, sharpening their bayonets (1) and guarding the border with Iraq.
Lots of people questioned the wisdom of invading Iraq, and most of those doubts have been substantiated. As an academic exercise, that’s a satsifying observation to make. As a life lesson for navigating the back alleys of the worst parts of the world, it’s the wrong lesson to take away from this.
Every casualty is a tragedy, a solider or a civilian – and a family – that will never be the same again. Those who “support war” don’t, I think, often put themselves in that place. When our daughter was deployed to Iraq, I prayed every day. When Camp Liberty was rocketed and 5 US soldiers killed, I never knew anything like that, waiting to hear from her, or that she was OK.
But the choice is not between mega-death and no deaths. The choice is the more civilized, or the less civilized. People are going to die, the choice is who and how and when and why.
Over 4,000 American have lost their lives in Iraq … an immeasurable tragedy for those families and the nation. Saddam Hussein killed 5,000 Kurds in one day (2). He killed untold hundrends of thousands during Iraq’s near-decade long war with Iran: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran–Iraq_War Was it necessary for the US to imvade Iraq to destroy the government and depose Saddam Hussein?
We don’t know. Only history can judge. And we don’t have near enough history yet for that judging to occur. For anyone who thinks this is oxen dull-headedness, let me recount a short story. An American diplomat to China during Nixon’s initiative to open relations with China asked his Chinese counterpart, “What do you think of the French Revolution?”. The Chines diplomat replied, “Too soon to tell.” We Americans, especially young Americans, want it, and want it NOW. We’ll only know the outcome of our efforts, whether Viet Nam, Panama, Grenada, Iraq I or II, etc, etc, after a good long period of time has passed.
In the meantime, a world where Iran has functional tactical nuclear weapons and a viable delivery system become a much less stable, much more dangerous place.
We have 70,000 troops in Germany to defend Russia against the prospect of a re-armed Germany. We have 50,000 troops in East Asia to defend China against the prospect of a re-armed Japan. Does anyone want to roll the dice to see how the future, devoid of US presence, would turn out?
Does anyone want to roll those dice to see how the future with a nuclear-armed Iran turns out? Oh, yeah, Ron Paul does. And he was in the Army (as he constantly reminds us), so he must know.
It’s important for the US to have an anti-war movement. Everything in America should have a countermovement. No concept should go unchallenged, no premise unquestioned, no plan implemented with protest. But that shouldn’t lead the vestigal, volunteer force-era anti-war movement to expect much support. 70% of Americans opposed our continued involvement in Afghanistan, yet there is no real political pressure to withdraw from Afghanistan, and there’s a perceptible if unlikely chance we’ll end up doing something in Iran. That’s because it’s an economic issue, not a visceral, “Hell no, I wont’ go! Hey, hey LBJ, how many kids did you kill today?” kind of thing.
If you want to end war, vote to bring back the draft. Without exemptions. Do it now.
(1) Noooooo, they weren’t sharpening their bayonets, they aren’t even issued bayonets any more. I just figured that would satisfy some gurgling, burbling, pull-their-teeth anti-Military predisposition.
(2) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halabja_poison_gas_attack
Draft or no, when the propagandists spread the call for war, the masses will swallow it whole and break out the antenna flags. That being the case, let the moron volunteers go die for lies.