What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, Good god, y’all.
Wouldn’t it be great if every president was required to listen to Edwin Starr’s nearly perfect anthem against War before committing troops to harms way?
Especially before a needless and senseless military action like the one going on in Iraq.
But you won’t hear me call it a war. The war ended in a matter of weeks when the so-called coalition forces steamrolled over Saddam Hussein’s undisciplined and overmatched defenses.
What followed is nothing other than an open-ended occupation that just about perfectly fits the definition of a quagmire.
The PBS American Experience series ran a two-part profile of George H. W. Bush last week and the contrast between his skillful orchestration of the first gulf war with the mess perpetuated on our nation and the world by his first born was overwhelming.
The justification was undeniable, the international support was unquestionable, the force was overwhelming, and the victory was quick. Bush 41 chose to end hostilities once Kuwait was liberated. The objective was achieved and additional loss of life was spared.
Some taunted the president, who served his country during World War II, for failing to continue the march to Baghdad but, as Powell and Baker pointed out, nobody is doing that anymore.
I’ll leave it to historians and psychologists to explain what motivated Bush fils to handle things so differently from his pop. Thankfully, his days as president are numbered. Our nation has an important decision to make this November.
John McCain has begun distancing himself from the current occupant of the White House on many things but not on Iraq. He insists that our military must remain in Iraq as long as necessary to support the new and fragile democracy. His claim that withdrawing our troops would amount to surrender is nonsense. We won the war and it is up to the Iraqis, with international support, to establish a self-sustaining government.
The Iraqi people will only support a government of its own choosing and our unlimited presence prevents that from happening. Parents know that we fail our children if we don’t let them walk on their own two feet. By continuing our role as occupiers we are enabling corrupt sycophants who don’t have the moral suasion to appeal to their own people. Doesn’t the Iraqi army’s pathetic recent performance in Basra make that obvious?
We have a role to play but not as occupying force. The next American president must restore our commitment to international law and the right of all nations to self-determination. The 9/11 attacks were not an excuse to turn our backs on these basic principles. Yes, the renegades who engage in terrorism need to be hunted down and punished and nations that harbor them should be held to account but within the framework of diplomacy and collaboration between allies.
41 got it but 43 didn’t.
Let’s hope we elect a 44 who does.
