Just Another Brick in the Wall

I took some time tonight to scan through some of my favorite blogs - many of which were clearly anti-war (at least against the war in Iraq). Many touted the cost of the war, complained that we still haven't received the benefits we were supposed to reap from it, and the 'quagmire' in which we find ourselves. I think it's time I finally responded. Bear with me, I have a lot of thoughts and a lot of things that many of you will find utterly distasteful. This is my perspective, I could be right. You'll never know unless you read to the end.

Let me begin by telling you a story. I was married once. It wasn't one of those three-week courting periods. We dated for nearly three and a half years before we married. The marriage itself lasted eleven and a half years. For those weak in math, that's about fifteen years. I was 31 when I divorced. I had spent nearly half my life with one woman. I'll spare you all the details of the disaster - we both had our issues and I will confess that ultimately the divorce came at my insistence..

The point is, I went into this relationship with the absolute best of intentions. This was the woman I wanted to be with my whole life. I was in love - or so I thought. I knew that we could make it and that nothing could ever tear us apart. We had good jobs, good educations, a great church, awesome friends. What could every go wrong? Well, I'll tell you...Life. To be perfectly honest, within two years of being married, I realized that the things she wanted in life were not the things I wanted. In our defense, how could we know who we would grow up to be? We never fought much. We just let our anger and bitterness steep and simmer until the only clear option was divorce.

It wasn't easy. In many ways, we were both miserable, but both of us were ultimately thrilled at the decision I had made. What nobody could predict is that her new husband would decide it was his right to start beating my kids. Not spanking - I mean hitting, choking and throwing them around a room when he got angry. That's when the marriage mistake became an unmitigated disaster. Please don't offer your sympathies on this. The issue has been resolved and my kids are now big enough to kick his a$$, should he get out of line again. Let's focus on the relevance of this to the wars in Iraq.

Without re-hashing all the reasons for the initial invasion - whether they be legitimate or not, whether they be just or not. - the fact remains that when this invasion occurred the numbers in support of the President and this action were staggeringly overwhelming. For the record, I don't think anything President Bush said while making his case for the war were lies. Some things may have turned out to be inaccurate - even wrong - but a lie is, by definition, a willing misrepresentation of the truth. I believe that the President was absolutely convinced that the information he presented was accurate. But that's a different Blog...

This brings me to my argument that we have (or more accurately - have had) two wars in Iraq. I'm not referring to Desert Storm. When we invaded In 2003 we had a mission - to take out Sadaam Hussein. We accomplished that mission with incredible efficiency. When President Bush stood on the aircraft carrier under the banner that stated "Mission Accomplished", the fact is we had accomplished the primary mission of the war. I see this as somewhat akin to my dating period with my ex...when I said 'I do', my mission was accomplished.

Many love to post quotes made by U.S. Officials about how the Iraqis would welcome us as liberators. These posters also like to say that never happened. I hate to burst their bubbles, but it DID happen. I spent weeks glued to the television watching hour after endless hour of the war and the aftermath. I watched live as our soldiers worked together with the citizens of Baghdad to tear down the statue of Sadaam and step on it's face or smack it in the face with their shoes. I watched hundreds of Iraqis hug and kiss our soldiers. When the Americans moved through town, the Iraqi citizens lined the streets like some sort of parade and waved the American Flag. We were hailed at liberators and welcomed by the vast majority of citizens. Then the honeymoon ended.

Nobody can deny that mistakes were made. Borders weren't secured. The first vestiges of an insurgency were not quelled. The Baath party and the Iraqi military were disbanded. Like with my marriage - life happened. What could have - and SHOULD have been a swift resolution to the war, simply fell apart. This is what I consider to be analogous to my divorce, and the start of the second war in Iraq.

You see, the second war has nothing to do with Sadaam. It has everything to do with al-Qaeda, Iran and those Iraqis that are, in essence, the equivalent of the Taliban in Afghanistan. These three groups believe that all people - not just Iraqis - should live under Sharia Law and view democracy as the enemy of God. Based on their common goals, these groups initially saw our troops as the core enemy. Their problem was thatno matter how many casualties we took, the resolution of our President quickly became evident. We had learned our lesson from Desert Storm (i.e. we told the Iraqi people to rise up and fight Sadaam, then pulled out and left them to be slaughtered). I, for one, am glad that SOMEONE in this country still believes that if you don't know your history, you are doomed to repeat it.

Our mistakes in the war soon came back to haunt us. In the same way neither myself nor my ex could have anticipated the actions of her new husband, we could not have anticipated the insurgency and the way it caught hold. But the Iraqi people had become our children - a fledgling democracy. As such, we can no more abandon them in their infancy than any (sane) parent could toss their child in a dumpster and walk away. We created them and we have the responsibility to teach them, coddle them, and watch them grow until they are able to sustain themselves.

The fact is, as much as I would like to go back and correct the mistakes I made in my marriage (like saying 'I Do'), the reality is that I am stuck where I am. I am a better man for it. When I first learned what the step-dad was doing, I had to make a choice. Protecting my kids was obvious and came without saying. However, I had to choose between what I wanted to do (you can only imagine), and the right thing to do. I chose to leave my fighting to the attorneys. How much it cost was irrelevant - and believe me, it was far more than substantial.

What I'm saying is, we went into this war with the best of intentions. If it had all gone according to plan, our troops would all be back home and George Bush would be the greatest President in modern history. But life happens and we are where we are. I, as much as anybody else, would love nothing more than to pull our troops out and celebrate their bravery, honor and service. The reality is, we still have a lot of work to do - however personally distasteful as that may be.

The one outstanding issue I feel I need to address is this misconception that Bush, Cheney and McCain want to keep our troops there for a hundred years. Anyone that believes that is intellectually bankrupt. Never have any of them stated such a desire. All three have, however, stated the commitment to do so - should that be necessary. After all, if your child were born with DOWNS, how long would you, as a parent, be willing to care for that child? There is some fact behind the notion that we will have troops there for decades - after all, how long have we had troops in Germany? Lets see....2008 - 1945 = 63 years and counting...but only the first few of those were actually war years. Today we enjoy a healthy and (generally) safe presence in the country of a former enemy.

Remember, when you get all knotted up about this stuff, try looking at it from the big picture. Think of it as taking the Ferari you have the opportunity to steel today - at the cost of your family, home and job tomorrow. Then ask yourself, Obama or McCain - which plan protects your children and grandchildren. Our soldiers are willing to pay the price with blood, body parts and their lives, so who are you to quibble about the dollars and cents?