Iraq

NOTE: This is a long post. I will try to make future posts shorter (and about less controversial topics). I try to express my opinions without vitriol, and I hope that was achieved with this one. The Iraq war inspires very passionate feelings and a lot of anger on both sides. For me, it still incites stronger feelings than any other topic. That said, I welcome respectful dialogue, but I expect strong feelings from supporters of preemptive war. I promise I will respect all opinions, but be ready to defend them.

Here we go...

I was against the Iraq invasion from the beginning. But, I was against it for different reasons than most people who currently want a change in policy. This is my argument against anyone who would defend pre-emptive war under any circumstances. Preemptive invasion coupled with nation building injures our national security, is morally and ethically wrong, and damages our standing in the world enough to influence our interests.

I won't even go into the facts about how wrong we were about WMD, how it appears that the administration purposely misled and exaggerated the threat or that diplomacy was faked while we prepared for the inevitable invasion. All of that is beyond inexcusable. However, I do not believe that we should have invaded, overthrown and occupied Iraq EVEN IF it would have had WMD.

These are the reasons why.

NATIONAL SECURITY

No one in his or her right mind would say that we should invade, overthrow and occupy Iran and North Korea now. It would be foolish. Obviously. Since not everyone agrees that it is immoral, I'll make an argument even the very conservative would agree with: We don't have the military readiness to do it.

THAT is exactly why this should never have been done in the first place and should never be done again absent a WWII-like scenario. It is irresponsible to our national security readiness to leave ourselves so militarily vulnerable. Occupation occupies an army as well as a nation. It does so to the point of being not available if a real emergency were to arise. If North Korea invaded South Korea tomorrow, we can't do much about it.

That is dangerous.

Our biggest deterrent was the threat of our power. That threat is gone right now. For one, our military is unavailable. In fact, even the mystique of our power is being chiseled away as our powerful army gets bogged down by citizens without uniforms. It empowers other nations to believe that we aren't so invincible after all. We took our biggest deterrent away to disarm a toothless, caged and impotent tiger.

Today, the same administration that decided to invade Iraq for national security reasons reported that Al Qeida is now back to pre-911 readiness. Our national security has officially (and by Bush administration admission) gotten worse because of the Iraq invasion. Why? Because we are no longer chasing them around the world. They are in Iraq only because we are. They remain hidden in Afghanistan. All those "unpatriotic dissenters" were right after all. This really didn't make us safer.

No responsible argument can be made that this invasion has made us safer. And I have heard no strong argument that our continued presence will make the situation better. We must look to Vietnam, but this time learn from it.

Many point to the fact that if we leave, all hell will break loose. That may well be true. However, no one has convinced me that our continued presence would do anything more than temporarily delay that same chaos. Our presence in Vietnam delayed the inevitable by more than 10 years. It took less than a year to finally fall when we left. The real lesson is that that is why nation building does not work when forced by invasion.

We should have known that by paying attention to history.

Finally on this point, to those who argue that we all knew it would take years I say this: Only a nation with people strongly united behind a war effort will have that kind of patience. When commenced with shaky support, the idea that we would sustain a decades-long occupation supported by the populace is foolish. With a morally clear objective, such problems do not exist.

This was not a morally-clear objective.

MORAL AUTHORITY

I believe very deeply that it is immoral to start a war for preventative reasons. Preemptive war is per se wrong. Action to neutralize the arming of a dangerous nation does not require invasion, overthrow and occupation. If it did, we would currently occupy half the earth. If the threat is true and rationally supported, we won't ever have to do it alone.

This war has bred even more stains to our authority as an example of good in the world. The United States of America engaged in torture. Our president declared he had that authority.

While sitting in the mud, how can we now denounce those who partake of that brutal assault on humanity?

These United States punched first. How could we ever tell China not to invade Taiwan? At least Taiwan has up-to-date weapons (we have their receipts).

My county is now one that doesn't believe in non-proliferation treaties. Doesn't seem right but it is true. Our pursuit of the Star Wars program has antagonized many potential aggressors. It is foolish to think that such a system can help us in the age of suitcase nukes. But, that hasn't stopped us.

The fact that my phone could be tapped for any reason without any judicial oversight stifles our influence toward the spread of a freedom-based system of government. We look like hypocrites.

These issues have eroded the once shining example we provided. And it has affected how our allies look at us.

WORLD STANDING

I was in Germany when we were rattling sabers, threatening invasion and faking diplomacy. And then something amazing happened. It worked. Bush pulled off a coup. He got Saddam to blink. He used our biggest deterrent and won. All inspectors were allowed to look where we told them to. People forget this, but inspectors were on the ground before the invasion. Look it up. I remember vividly because that made me most livid about the decision. I remember because we had to have them pulled out before we invaded. We had won. We could make sure no WMD were in existence and we didn't have to go to war. A really brilliant move. We took a risk and won.

And then we went all in with a pair of twos and invaded anyway.

I discussed this with many Germans. Even though I was staunchly against the war, I found myself trying to justify the sanity of my nation. They were confused because polls showed Americans were split on the idea of war in Iraq before the invasion, but those numbers turned to 80 percent support once the invasion became imminent. They wanted to know why.

I tried to describe the political phenomenon called "rally around the flag" and explained that Americans support even controversial actions when the bullets fly. I will never forget the look on an instructor's face when I explained that. She was horrified and said "Das ist Dummheit!" (that is idiocy!). There is no reason to suspend our rational thought when bullets fly, she said. In fact, it should be intensified. I agreed, but tried to explain that our nation isn't used to being wrong and tried to explain our level of trust in our government.

I was asked to look around at all the houses. Not a single German flag could be found. I was told, "we know the dangers of excessive nationalism." We are not Nazis, but we weren't looking real good at the time.

We were very unpopular when I was there. I was told we were monsters and bullies. One man (who only spoke a heavy Bavarian accent I could not understand) bridged the communication gap by saying "Bush" and making a throat-slash sign.

If we cannot convince like-minded nations of the rightness of our action, we should stop and think again about what we are about to do. Like minded nations were afraid of us, our actions and the precedent we seemed determined to set. I was frustrated and a bit ashamed for us. We were supposed to be moral leaders in this world. Our example was supposed to shine. For the first time in my lifetime, I felt like our country had lost its moral authority.

The world is much less willing to go along with us today. The EU now also considers itself a possible counterweight to a reckless US rather than just another large block of allies. Sure, we maintain friendships with these nations, but we have earned some suspicion.

CONCLUSION

We are in this mess. Our nation has been divided, and bitterly so. The truth is finally coming out and the approval ratings are showing just how disappointed the American people are. Many options for withdrawal are being considered. I consider it a late attempt to undo a mistake. The tragedy is that the Iraqis must pay the price when we finally leave. But leave we must. Civil war has already started.

I am concerned that this nation is too nationalistic when armed forces are involved and too convinced that dissent equals non-support of troops. Support for the troops is important and they should always have the respect and admiration of the populace no matter what. But, we should be more responsible with their sacrifices. Our system of government depends on reasoned analysis and debate, continued analysis and scrutiny.

The blame for this disaster falls only on Bush, his administration and every Congressperson who voted to trust him without careful consideration. This was a rush job, but it was allowed to happen by a Congress that can best be described as an accomplice. But the Congress represents a populace that it believed (probably correctly) wanted that action. Therefore, we, the populace, also failed.

Our government failed us and we failed our government. But I know our people are smart enough to right the ship. Polls indicate a national reevaluation. Many were misled and are eager to make up for it.

Maybe this time we will learn from our mistakes. Then our moral authority will once again influence constructively while we use our power responsibly and with humility.