Iraq War Flip-Flop, Maybe?

When it was first considered, I felt that invading Iraq was a good idea. Not for any of the reasons put forth by the Bush administration. Weapons of mass destruction, Saddam’s collaboration with terrorists, etc.. These motivations are not what motivated me.

I liked the idea of the Iraqi people being liberated from the tyrannical rule of Saddam Hussein. After 26+ years of being under “house arrest” as a country, I felt we (the U.S.) had some responsibility as the most prosperous and powerful nation on the planet to do something.

I had supported our efforts in Kosovo to end the ethnic cleansings there. I supported our humanitarian activities in Somalia. It seemed consist to support the liberation of an oppressed people.

Now, you may ask, why Iraq? Aren’t there many other countries we could help?

I have this handy fire chief metaphor I like to use in response to these type questions. If you’re a fire chief and you come to a city block full of buildings on fire, you have prioritize which building you want to put out first.

You look at which building is most important to the interests of the city -- hospital, a munitions factory, the bank, etc.. You ascertain which building can be put out. If the bowling alley is engulfed, let it go. Which building has the most people who need rescue?

In taking this metaphor into real like, you ask, why not North Korea? Well, they have a huge, heavily armed military. They have nuclear weapons. You can’t put that fire out. Why not the Sudan (Darfur)? I think we do need to insert some sort of calming presence there, but it doesn’t have the critical factors when it comes to our national security.

Iraq had invaded Kuwait in the previous decade. The Hussein regime had killed an estimated 300,000 of its people after that because they were dissidents. Human rights, freedom of speech, or any privileges we have in the U.S. are unheard of there.

On top of that, there was a good chance that they had aided terrorists or could be a breeding ground for them.

As much as my initial knee-jerk reaction is to oppose any military initiative that sounds pre-emptive, I studied the situation from several angles and decided that it was a good idea.

Today, I’m not sure I would.

Okay, you can call me a flip-flopper. I call myself a rational, thinking individual. If you go down a dark alley every day and get mugged, you decide not to down that alley anymore.

I think that war has been terribly handled. We don’t have enough troops. Not enough emphasis was put on what to do after their military is toppled. We failed to understand the cultural problem post-invasion and conquest.

Maybe it’s not the war itself I regret supporting, but the prosecution. The training of Iraqi’s new army is floundering. “New” Iraqi soldiers seemed to have either bulls eyes on their backs or become our newly trained enemies when they defect to insurgents.

And I definitely don’t want to see it as first step to an expanded military interventionist policy to re-shape the Mid East. Which I strongly suspect is the ultimate goal of the “Vulcans” in the Bush administration.

Obviously, we can’t go back in time, but we need to be honest about the situation. President Bush is trying to paint a positive picture of the situation and who blames, but it is pretty bleak. Since the toppling of Saddam, the situation in Iraq has spiraled down and out of control. The “Plan” is way off-course and having the conviction to stick with it doesn’t make him sound commanding, it makes him sound ignorant. I wouldn’t look down on him, if he said we need to make a major course change, but it’s difficult to support a stubborn course when you know it leads to disaster – repeatedly.

Come up with a new plan and I might stay on board. If not, and I’m flip-flopping. It’s my prerogative, I’m an American, not an Iraqi.