Are We There Yet?
Do you remember what you were doing five years ago today?
I remember I was talking to one of my students about the war that had just started.
I told him that, “We’ll still be there in five years, and you will probably have to go fight it.”
Well, he hasn’t had to go, and we are still there.
I may have only been half-right, but at least the kid isn’t dead like the almost 4,000 other Americans, or the anywhere between 100 and 600 thousand Iraqis.
My student asked how I could possibly know that.
“Simple,” I replied, “I’ve studied history—unlike our President.”
I explained that history has demonstrated what happens when you remove a strongman from power. You get chaos.
I pointed out an example that had occurred in his own lifetime: the Death of Yugoslavia’s dictator, Josep Tito, led to a bloody, years-long war in the Balkans (that continues to this day). Dictators may be SOBs, but they know how to keep the peace.
I further pointed out that Iraq was a “new” country (1922) with arbitrarily drawn borders that did not take into account the ethnic and religious differences of the people that lived there.
He asked me about the differences between Shiites and Sunnis. I replied that I did not understand them, but those differences were serious enough that these guys kill each other over them. I pointed out that neither branch of Islam has too much affection for the Kurds, and that the only solution to insure the peace would be to carve it into three countries.
I still believe that.
Shortly after the war started, it ended, or so we thought.
I mean, Gosh!, there’s the president standing under a big banner saying “Mission Accomplished.”
The troops will be coming home soon, right?
OK, so we redefined the mission. To what I am not sure.
“We’re going to be there until we have victory.”
Oh, OK.
What is victory?
There are no WMDs in Iraq.
That is a victory.
Saddam is dead.
That’s a victory.
Are we going to establish democracy?
Democracy in Palestine has brought Hamas to power. We don’t dare establish democracy.
There have been no terrorist attacks on US soil since 9/11.
We could call that a victory.
We’ve built the world’s largest embassy complex in Baghdad and we’ve got nineteen brand new military bases over there (plus the two in Afghanistan that most folks haven’t heard about). The US will be there forever.
That’s a victory of sorts. At least the oil is secure.
Listen to Fox news. There’s a victory every day!
I saw on the real news the other day a young Marine down at Camp Pendleton, getting ready to go on his FIFTH deployment. The poor young man looked at the camera and said, “I don’t wanna go.” Can you blame him?
I guess victory for him would be getting home alive.
Until and unless somebody with a pair gets up and defines what victory is, the only answer to the question, “Are we there yet?” has to be:
“We’re not headed there anymore.”
