It might be useful, at this stage, to take a step back from the war and examine how our nation came to this pass. And a very good place to start has been pointed out by Michael Elliott and James Carney, of \Time,"" who wrote in this week's edition about the administration's thoughtful deliberations over the invasion. Here--unedited--are the opening lines of their piece.
""'Fuck Saddam. We're taking him out.' Those were the words of President George W. Bush, who had poked his head into the office of National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice. It was March 2002, and Rice was meeting with three U.S. senators, discussing how to deal with Iraq through the United Nations, or perhaps in a coalition with America's Middle East allies. Bush wasn't interested. He waved his hand dismissively, recalls a participant and neatly summed up his Iraq policy in that short phrase. The senators laughed uncomfortably; Rice flashed a knowing smile. The president left the room. A year later, Bush's outburst has been translated into action, as cruise missiles and smart bombs slam into Baghdad.""
That, in and of itself, is damning. To know that the president treated, even for a split-second, one of the most horrifying inventions of man so cavalierly--so tastelessly--should appall and sicken even the most ardent supporters of the invasion. But even this could possibly be excused, if you squint, through various rationalizations of the irrational.
Maybe the president simply made an amateurish attempt to inject some levity into a serious and difficult conversation. Maybe the president was trying to boil all of the complexities of the situation into a simplistic expression of moral clarity--a practice for which he is well-known. And maybe, just maybe, the president would think better of it later on, or at least at the moment when he decided to launch the first strike.
Unfortunately, the president did not think better of it. A week ago tonight, the president told the nation that the decision to invade Iraq was made ""reluctantly."" And this reluctance was made clear in the moments before the president's somber address. According to a Knight Ridder wire report, ""minutes before the speech, an internal television monitor showed the president pumping his fist. 'Feels good,' he said.""
Never mind the fact that the Iraqi arsenal was being gradually dismantled. Never mind the fact that--once the purported ""red line around Baghdad"" is crossed--the weapons that the United Nations left behind could possibly be used against our soldiers, against the Iraqis that we are purportedly trying to save, against Israel and against other selected targets. Never mind the fact that Osama bin Laden and those of like mind and ability will use this invasion as a tool for their own bloody ends. Never mind the fact that the international coalition formed to combat terrorism is now, just 18 months after the attacks on the East Coast, in tatters. Never mind the fact that the president's squandering of international support will make the successful resolution of the worsening situation in North Korea that much more difficult. Forget all of that.
Just think about the fact that the president ran over anyone and anything that stood between him and his desperately desired war. Think about the fact that he changed his rationale, rhetoric and strategy countless times in the process--to the point where our foreign policy had simply become a pretentious charade. And think about the fact that the president of the United States, in the seconds before he told the world of his reluctance to instigate a painful and bloody war, had a private moment to survey all that he had done.
Brave and dedicated soldiers would be sent to their deaths. Innocent people in several nations would die. Decades of international cooperation had been discarded. The world had become more dangerous. The nation that he led had become less secure. And he just did not care. He, at long last, had his war. His wish--privately and inelegantly described a year earlier--had come true. And he was thrilled.
Those Americans who are, at this moment, placing themselves in the path of bullets in Iraq have my sincere respect. I fervently hope and pray for their safe return, and I hold them blameless for the execution of this needless and counterproductive war. At the same time, the families of those same service personnel have my sympathy and support. And the people of Iraq have my best wishes--and my hope that the pain that they are now being made to suffer will be allayed, to at least some extent, by the eventual institution of a new representative government.
The president of the United States, however, has my furious contempt. And he richly deserves it.
