[1] We still owe the Iraqi people the opportunity we intended to offer them when we invaded their land in 2003. We owe them a reasonable chance to establish basic order and security along with a decent government. Such an arrangement would give them the possibility to flourish as a civilized and peaceful country, something very unusual among Arab countries. Those have been our goals and what we continue to owe them.
[2] Although I remain convinced that the invasion of Iraq was necessary and just, I have come to the bitter realization that we have botched the job horribly. In my last reflection on Iraq for the online Journal of Lutheran Ethics, I was far too sanguine about how we were doing in Iraq. My biggest disappointment is in the former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, who stubbornly maintained a failing strategy far longer than he should have, and in President Bush, who should not have stuck as long as he did with Rumsfeld. He has finally selected a new Secretary and new military leader, General Petraeus, whose strategy has the chance of succeeding.
[3] The four years of bumbling has exhausted the patience of the American people and has thereby cost the Republican Party dearly. The Republicans are now out of power, almost completely a result of botching the Iraq war. This is properly so; when a country invades another, it had better know what it is doing. The Republicans have justly paid the price for incompetence in prosecuting the war.
[4] However, I had hoped that when the Democrats came to power they would begin to act responsibly. Sadly, most have catered to the left wing of their party that simply wants a precipitous withdrawal from Iraq, seemingly heedless of what the repercussions for Iraq and the Middle East will be. The possibilities are awful: a slaughter of those who have sided with us; vicious all-out sectarian warfare; a greater destabilization of the Middle East; the emboldening of radical Islam; a geo-political defeat of major proportions of the USA by Iran and Al Qaeda; and the abandonment of what we owe Iraq.
[5] Many more thoughtful people of both parties are now calling for a gradual pull-back, seemingly conceding that our mission there either is now or never was possible to achieve. They see parallels between what happened in Viet Nam and what is happening in Iraq. We have gotten ourselves involved in an impossible situation. Therefore, they call for a gradual pull-out accompanied by more diplomatic moves, which will make our defeat seem more graceful.
[6] I also see parallels with the Viet Nam era. The most important parallel I see is that the USA is likely to be defeated in each case politically at home rather than militarily/politically abroad. There is a good historical case to be made that both the United States and later the South Vietnamese were actually winning a noble cause in Viet Nam when the rug was pulled out from under them politically. I believe the same thing is tragically happening in the case of Iraq, and possibly in Afghanistan. In Iraq we may finally have developed a strategy that may work, but it will take some time to see if that is the case. It is very important that the political rug not be pulled out from under these important efforts now or in the coming year. I dearly hope that political patience and determination at home will allow this last great effort a chance to succeed. If we give up prematurely, we certainly cannot offer the Iraqis what we owe them.
© August 2007
Journal of Lutheran Ethics (JLE)
Volume 7, Issue 8
