The Parable of Iraq

This column originally appeared in the Williston Observer on March 27, 2008.

The Parable of Iraq

It is a common device in fiction - the seeming threat that is anything but. From the Great Wizard in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz to the Beast in the Lord of the Flies, the threat frightens the characters, spurs them to action.

Sometimes the falsity of the threat is revealed before any real damage is done - the Wizard is exposed as just a ventriloquist and for Dorothy, a way home is revealed. Often, though, the tragedy of the story is that the falsity is never realized, or realized too late. Ask Simon, the looming figure from the jungle mistaken for the Beast, killed in a frightened frenzy.

These stories resonate with us because such frightening non-threats are everywhere in real life. And, far too often, we realize too late how wrong we were.

We interned over a hundred thousand Japanese-Americans during World War II because we were frightened that they would turn on their country. When the House Un-American Activities Committee and Sen. Joseph McCarthy saw Communist threats around every corner, we black-balled scores of talented artists and besmirched the records of civil servants and military officers.

And, most recently, we entered into an unfortunate war with Iraq because we were frightened into believing that Saddam Hussein was, or soon would be, looming over us with chemical weapons, perhaps even biological or nuclear weapons.

Five years ago, the undeclared war in Iraq started, and though we conquered Hussein, we still fight on there, against new threats. Only after it was too late did we learn that Hussein was no more a threat than that Wizard - a blustery, loud voice that emanated from a small, powerless man.

Sadly, the people we trusted to be right about the facts were either wrong about them or lying about them. The truth is, there were no chemical weapons, no biologicals, and certainly no nukes. Revealed just this month, we now know for sure that Hussein had no connection, whatever, with the 9/11 terrorists. The pretext for war was all wrong.

Like many of us, I feel partially to blame. I was willing to be convinced, willing to suspend my skepticism. I trusted Colin Powell when he showed me the evidence. I trusted the President when he said the links were there. But as time passed and as my suppressed skepticism began to reemerge, as new evidence belied old evidence, it became clear that our actions against Hussein were a fool's errand.

Don't get me wrong - I'm not defending Hussein. He was a savage, brutal man, and I shed not a single fraction of a tear that he is gone. But was his ouster, capture, and death worth all of the physical destruction Iraq has endured? Was it worth a single Iraqi life? A single American life? Was it worth 4000 American lives?

What's done is done. Debate about what should have happened will go on for a long time - many books have been and will be written on the subject. Clearly, Colin Powell was right about one thing when he told Bush that if he sent troops into Iraq, he'd end up owning it. Indeed, we own this mess, dearly paid for in American treasure and American blood.

In this election season, a lot of speeches will be made about what to do in Iraq. Public opinion is mixed. Many want an immediate pull out, not realizing how irresponsible and foolhardy this would be. Many of us want to stay in Iraq and have no problem with an open-ended commitment. This is just as foolish.

What the next president must do is come up with the plans for withdrawal that were sorely lacking when we got into this mess. We must bolster the Iraqi political and military institutions, and redouble our efforts to turn Iraq over to the Iraqis. I firmly believe that by the middle of the next president's term, with the right leadership, we could be out of Iraq completely, save a few military advisers.

We should have looked at our own past, should have read a few more parables or morality tales - we could have prevented this tragedy. We didn't. As an electorate, though, it is not too late to take some lessons away from the parable of Iraq. The foremost lesson is that until we have a president with a will to leave, we won't leave.