This column originally appeared in the Williston Observer on July 17, 2008.
Breaking up the Axis of Evil
Technically, the United States is not now, nor has it been since 1945, at war. The Constitution is very specific on the point - for a legal state of war to exist, war must be declared by the Congress. No such declaration was made for Korea, nor Vietnam, nor Iraq, nor Afghanistan, nor Iraq the second time around.
But in 2002, just a few months after the September 11 attacks, President Bush created a new kind of declaration, a declaration that we still live with every day. This declaration was that some nations, and three in particular, were an Axis of Evil.
In his declaration, Bush put these nations and the world on notice: "America will do what is necessary to ensure our nation's security."
Those three nations, of course, were North Korea, Iraq, and Iran.
These nations all seemed to derive perverse pleasure out of goading the United States and the world.
Iraq's Saddam Hussein infamously ordered the use of poison gas against his own people in the 1980's and used "human shields" in 1990. He was dispatched by the most direct of means.
After being told that Hussein had and was ready to use all manner of weapons of mass destruction - chemical, biological, nuclear - he was deemed a threat that had to be dealt with harshly.
His nation invaded and overwhelmed by American and British troops, Hussein fled and hid. He was captured by U.S. troops, and was then tried, convicted, and hanged by Iraqi courts.
In North Korea, "Dear Leader" Kim Jong-il is a megalomaniac dictator who sees nuclear weapons and missile development as more pressing needs than the care and feeding of his people.
Here, Kim has had a better fate than Hussein. Much of this likely has to do with the fact that he actually has nuclear weapons - something Hussein could only dream about. Though his tests seemed to fizzle, they were nukes nonetheless, and the U.S. and four other interested nations have been negotiating with Kim's acolytes for years.
With the symbolic implosion of a cooling tower at North Korea's nuclear fuel processing facility, a potential crisis seems to have been avoided.
The third leg of the Axis is Iran, with which the U.S. has had poor relations for nearly thirty years. The big question is, what to do with Iran?
Iran has cycled through a procession of leaders, both political and religious, over the last thirty years, and so it is hard to point a finger at a single individual to rally public opinion. Iran, though, seems intent on drawing that attention to itself.
Whether it is direct threats to shipping in the Persian Gulf or the Straits of Hormuz, issuance of threats against the U.S. and Israel (including banners declaring "Death to America!" and "Death to Israel!" in military parades), or the recent test-firing of missiles capable of reaching Israel (going so far as to use PhotoShop to make it look like more missiles were fired than actually were), Iran's saber rattling seems designed to provoke a response.
Though the Bush administration correctly says that a military option is always on the table, my sincere hope is that we take the tack that we took with North Korea.
Unfortunately, preventing a conflict is not going to be easy. Iran is deliberately making Israel feel like it is backed into a corner. Iran's unfortunate and irrational animosity toward Israel could be its undoing, and the undoing of any chance for peace in the region.
Equally unfortunate, diplomacy is not seen as one the Bush administration's strong points.
On this one, though, we can't wait for an Obama administration. This is something Bush will have to deal with in his waning time.
If Iraq was the only example we had, I would not be confident that Bush could fix this one without force. But with the example of North Korea added to the picture, I think we have at least even odds of averting crisis.
Our troops, and civilian populations in Israel and Iran, would not be able to tell the difference between a declared war and an undeclared war. The result in either case is invariably death and destruction. For this last leg of the Axis of Evil, hopefully diplomacy will be the weapon of choice.
Showing posts with label iraq. Show all posts
Showing posts with label iraq. Show all posts
Thursday, July 17, 2008
Thursday, March 27, 2008
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.
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.
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