We mark all sorts of anniversaries with retrospective examinations, usually in five year increments. An on-line magazine I read is going over the Beatles 50 years ago.The Iraq War’s 10th anniversary does not seem to be drawing much consideration. the movie Zero Dark 30 did more to have us think over the recent past than the news does.
For a number of Americans, the first Gulf War felt a bit unfinished. We launched a successful campaign that threw back the forces in Kuwait. With that predator de-clawed, the war was over. No parade in Baghdad would be forthcoming.So mnay of the large promises go unmet. Iraq cannot be called a laboratory for democracy, at lt least yet. Its relations with Iran as stronger, not weaker, and we had voices who predicted just that outcome.Remember the rivers of oil that were to flow our way?
With the horror of 9/11, the George W. Bush administration quickly wanted to shift the focus from Afghanistan to Iraq, even though very little linkage could be made to that regime. So a remarkably compliant mass media went along with an orchestrated call to arms.With our vaunted technology and access to information, we were led like sheep toward conclusions that were not buttressed by facts. We arrogantly claimed victory too soon, as we recall the infamous “mission accomplished” sign for the White House photos set on an aircraft carrier.
Many Christians attempt to work through a personal pacifism. Most Christians, in national security policy, adopt a “just war” approach.One could argue that it was to protect the innocent citizens of Iraq under a dictator, but we claimed an imminent threat that did not exist..One could argue that we applied force carefully, but many many thousands of Iraqis lost their lives. Certainly, we did not level the country, even as our overweening power would permit.I am so grateful that more American lives were not lost, but we have a huge burden in dealing with soldiers ill-equipped to face sometimes multiple tours from reserve units, without any serious national discussion of the switch in policy. We privatized vast segments of our military response, again, without much national discussion or explanation. With little fanfare, we transformed the role of women in military combat. At the same time, we did incalculable damage to ourselves in justifying torture as policy.
Lincoln famously asked us to bind up the nation’s wounds, to care for those who have borne the battle, and for the widowed and orphaned. With advances in medicine, many soldiers survived who would not have previously. While we were willing to throw treasure at the war, we are tightfisted when it comes to care for returning veterans who need care.Even with the slum conditions connected to Walter Reed follow-up care, we have spent at least 400 billion dollars on care for soldiers. Rita N. Brock has started a program in Texas, Soul Repair, to help with the damage wrought by the war on our troops.
We spent billions on Iraq rebuilding, and the war itself cost perhaps 800 billion dollars. Let’s recall, we were in surplus before the GW Bush administration and on a glide path to paying off the national debt. We were told that the war would be virtually self-funding. any one of us knew that we were being lied to, but we chose to believe it. I recall few of the deficit hawk voices fearing the immense treasure spent in this misbegotten project, but how we hear howls of protest when american hungry are fed and the elderly cared for.
Iraq killed the voices ofthose fearing “another Vietnam.” My prayer is that it stands, for at least a generation, as a signal against the presumption that we can blithely remake the world by violence.
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