Next Question, Mr. President!
by adrien rain burke
December 28, 2005
OK, so no WMD, no Al Q - the wrong intel, and the entirely unanticipated persistence of the "insurgency." Nothing seems to have gone as planned.
And you say, Mr. Bush, that you'd still go to war against Iraq, knowing all that. And you have said, ". . . . . . . being your president requires doing what I believe is right and accepting the consequences."
But you don't go to war alone, Mr. President, no matter what you "believe is right." You can't. In order to command the Army - command an invasion, you need the backing of Congress. Of the nation. And to get that, you'd better have a good story - a compelling reason to commit all these resources and money and lives to war against a country that never attacked us (while mostly ignoring the search for those who did). And, however odd it may seem to you, the desire to change other people's 'regimes' is probably not going to get you the enthusiastic support of the nation.
To the extent that you were believed (as you were by two thirds of Americans at the time), what earned you America's support was a tight grouping of 'facts' now proven erroneous:
- That Saddam had Weapons of Mass Destruction
- That Saddam had ties to Al Quaeda and was a sponsor of terrorism
- That the people of Iraq would regard us as liberators, and greet us with sweets
and flowers
There were plenty of skeptics on all these counts, of course, but Americans want to believe that their president is telling the truth. Some of them even voted for you. Further, we had been attacked - by someone. There was a strong need for justice and 'closure' evident in America.
All of these 'facts' have evaporated. Some other things - like OIL, or the spread of 'democracy' in the Middle East - have proven almost as elusive. We were told that the Oil would easily pay for the war - ignoring the fact that it is their Oil, not ours. The beneficiaries of the democracy we are striving to install in Iraq, are angry and divided -
perhaps the one thing that most of them agree on is that we should leave - yet obedience to the will of the majority is the essential element of democracy we have not granted them. Though the tyrant is deposed, their lives have not improved one bit. Many are far worse off than under Saddam, who provided an admirable medical and educational system, not to mention dependable electricity. Women's rights are greatly diminished, and a theocracy is clearly rising, to the dismay of the secular and religious minorities.
Something is keeping us there now - what is that? Is it the Oil after all? Or the huge profits made by the likes of Halliburton, no matter what the outcome or cost to America and/or Iraq? Is it the need of our leaders to justify a grave miscalculation by somehow transforming it into a victory - and what if that victory can never be achieved? Is it
because the grand neoconservative 'Project for a New America' is still working behind the scenes, and we will use Iraq as a platform for the invasion of Iran and Syria, and
whatever other countries are on that list? (The neocons - followers of Leo Strauss, and apparent believers in the Noble Lie - seem never to have considered the possibility of a Day of Reckoning, a day when the lies are revealed, and the liars exposed.)
But since The Story - the reasons you gave us for this war - have all been eliminated, what I need to know is what reasons would you give to the American people, knowing what you know now? That's right. What would you tell us now to justify the slaughter and the sacrifice and the expense? To make us mad enough to overthrow the government of another sovereign nation? A tall order, Mr. President.
I guess you'd have to lie.
ummmmmm, you wouldn't do that, would you?
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