I once supported the War in Iraq.
I know it's a shocker given my political beliefs, but back in 2002, I was grouped with the 70 percent or so of Americans who believed that it was a good idea to invade Iraq. With the specter of Sept. 11, 2001, in the rearview mirror, coupled with the threat of Saddam Hussein creating nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, I felt it would be foolish to let such a man obtain such devices. After all, with Condoleezza Rice talking about mushroom clouds and the president linking Iraq and al Qaeda, who wouldn't want to take action?
I vividly remember getting into an argument with an anti-war coworker before the invasion. A conservative friend and I actually teamed up to put this flower-waving hippie in his place. For me, the low point of this argument occurred when I actually slandered the United Nations.
Oh, how wrong I turned out to be!
It was supposed to be such an easy war, and things started out relatively well.
Paul Wolfowitz said that the war would pay for itself, and we were supposed to be greeted as liberators. Baghdad fell, Saddam Hussein's statue was toppled and President Bush announced that major combat operations were over.
However, when the dust had settled, there were no weapons to be found. None. No sign of any weapons programs, either. To make matters worse, it was exposed that al Qaeda and the 9/11 terrorists were not working with Hussein.
Whoops. Our bad.
On top of the lies and misstatements prior to the war, the administration and the Department of Defense failed to secure Iraq's border, allowing thousands of foreign fighters and real terrorists to stream into the country and set up shop. For some reason, this development of an insurgency seemed to have taken this administration's military planners completely by surprise. If Al Qaeda wasn't a force in Iraq before the war, it sure is quite a presence now.
Like me, this administration was very wrong about this war, but unlike me, it still has not come to its senses. I realized that Iraq was the wrong enemy to be fighting at about the same time the reason for the war was unofficially switched from "WMDs" to "spreading democracy."
Hussein certainly was a ruthless dictator, but that didn't make him an imminent threat to this nation - it merely lumps him together with the dozen or so other dictators who should be monitored but not invaded. In addition, with the sour taste of the Iraq War in the world's mouth, it will be even harder to convince the global community to deal with potential problems in Iran and North Korea, which are currently trying to develop their own real nuclear programs.
Perhaps the longest lasting problem will be what to do with Iraq. With Iraqi Sunnis threatening to sink the proposed constitution, widespread civil war is a very real danger.
If that occurs, God forbid, where would that put America and its troops? In the middle of a very dangerous situation, that's where.
Colin Powell told the President before the war started that Iraq was like a Pottery Barn. The rule is "you break it, you buy it." Right now, we're buying it. We're paying for it with the lives of the 2,093 coalition troop deaths, the untold numbers of amputees, paraplegics and other wounded soldiers and approximately $194 billion.
Write to Steve at
nawarainthedn@hotmail.com
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