BE CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR...
On the day after July 4th, it is instructive to read the Declaration of Independence,
especially the bill of abuses Jefferson highlights as the rationale for
our rebellion against the British Empire, in light of the current
American invasion and occupation of Iraq.
While the bill of particulars does not have a one to
one relationship to the current state of affairs in Iraq, some of
Jefferson's language should haunt us. Such a listing provides
food for thought about why the 'insurgency' is so strong despite the
West Wing's vision of it being a bunch thugs, terrorists, and/or
religious zealots practicing horrific violence on friend or foe and in its "last throes".
"He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power."
"He has combined with others to subject us to a
jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our
laws; giving his Assent to their acts of pretended Legislation; "
"For quartering large bodies of armed troops, among
us; for protecting them, by mock Trial, from Punishment for any Murders
which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States;"
"For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world;
"For Imposing Taxes on us without our Consent;"
"For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury;
"For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offenses;"
"For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most
valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Government;"
"For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring
themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases
whatsoever;"
"He has abdicated Government here by declaring us out of his Protection and waging war against us;"
"He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts,
burnt our towns and destroyed the Lives of our people;"
"He is at this time transporting large armies of
foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and
tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy
scarcely paralleled in the most barbaric ages, and totally unworthy the
Head of a civilized nation;"
Again, the parallel is NOT exact, but these
Jeffersonian condemnations of British colonialism have a certain
familiar ring today to the American Raj in Iraq.
Saddham Hussein was clearly a vicious dictator who
practiced evil upon it's people and threatened its neighbors. But
to conflate a dictator with institutions of governance in Iraq which
pre-existed him and which he regularly ignored in many instances is to
confuse our reasons for being in Iraq. Rather than make Iraq in
our image, the task at hand - if it ever was our task - should have
been to liberate Iraq from this thug and his henchmen and then leave
not to bring about regime change.
Of course, the historical record shows President
George Bush (senior) et al. thought better of 'the road to Baghdad
option' and simply pulled back from an invasion and regime
change. He opted for containment. Humm, it worked with the
Soviets. Too bad we didn't keep with this bi-partisan policy
applied out under Bush I and Clinton.
We are now well past that demarcation line.
Under the rhetoric of the war on terrorism we have defeated a tyrant
and now have sown the seeds of a geo-political quagmire, the
consequences of which we never thought about before going to war.
Too bad.
Now, how do WE put Humpty Dumpty, i.e. Iraq, back
together again? Good question! The history of our Vietnam
War experience suggests we can't. Our timeliest exit from Iraq
may be the best first foot forward to mitigate further disaster.
To paraphrase Henry Kissinger - we need to negotiate a decent interval
for an honorable exit. Historians will determine how 'honorable'
it was.
Come to think of it - during the Bosnia conflict the
GOP spin machine harped constantly about an 'exit strategy'. Good
idea. Now in Bosnia we didn't go it alone and we are not bogged
down there as we are in Iraq. So Mr. President - what is our exit
strategy?
George III should have thought about that too.