Four years in Iraq

March 19, 2007 in Bush administration, Iraq

by Jay Stevens

You’ve probably read about it – oh, everywhere – but it’s the four-year anniversary of the Iraq war. (Congratulations, Bush administration! Here’s wishing you no more!)

The first thing to do is think of the servicemen and –women in Iraq. We should all remind ourselves daily of what they’re going through, and what they’re doing. A good place to start is Slate’s The Sandbox, which features first-hand accounts of life in the desert.

Next, head over to the Stars & Stripes for its “Four Years in Iraq” special, and its featurettes profiling four men who are currently fighting the war.

If you don’t want to read a political rant about the war, now’s a good time to leave this post.

…

Steve Benen has an excellent post up today about this dubious anniversary. Read over the account of the Iraqi who helped pull down Saddam’s statue in 2004, and who now says the occupation is worse than living under Hussein. (And yes, that’s one account.)

Read Tony Snow’s response to a reporter who pressed Tony Snow for an explanation on Bush’s “recipe for success”: “zip it!”

Settle on Senator Gary Heart’s “Lessons of Iraq.” In it, he clearly outlines the way to successful future foreign policy:

Do not manufacture justification for invasions. Plan for all eventualities, including the most unpleasant. Do not pay exiles to tell you what you want to hear. Deal honestly with Congress and the American people. Be candid about possible costs in lives and money.

Also:

First, treat jihadist terrorism more like organized crime than traditional warfare. By declaring “war on terrorism” we made the fatal mistake that it could be crushed using conventional warfare and massed armies….

Second, liberate the U.S. from dependence on Persian Gulf oil. We can then sharply reduce the U.S. military presence in the region and remove the single most important iincentive for jihadism….

Third, restore principle to American foreign policy….We must regain our moral authority in the world by living up to our own high ideals and Constitutional principles. [Mark T does his bit by explaining why the Iraq mess was immoral from beginning to end. – JS]

Fourth, engage the nations of the world in achieving security for the global commons….

One of the many things that angers me about the Iraq War and the Bush administration in general is the squandered opportunity for creating a sensible and lasting new world order in the months following September 11. (Mark T might not have liked this order, but we’d be debating\ fair trade and campaign finance reform in this alternative future, instead of dead bodies and Constitutional crises, like we do now.) If Heart’s proposals had been applied then, we might have had something to be proud of.

Well…instead we’ve got a big clusterf*ck in Iraq that’s enriching the worst among us, is creating more international terrorists, is killing American boys and girls and untold numbers of Iraqis, and that has just about every person on the planet thinking we’re a bigger threat to peace and stability than Iran or North Korea.

A number of you might flinch at such accusations. Most of us are decent people wanting to do what’s right. Which is all the more reason why the Bush administration’s actions are so shameful. They never gave us a chance to think things out – they foisted this on us, falsifying evidence to invade. We never got a chance to decide what to do.