ONE
Most Americans don’t care how many people die in Darfur, Diwaniyeh, Mogadishu, Mosul, Beirut, or Baghdad. Most Americans just want the Americans to stop loss of American blood in Iraq. Let’s be honest…the TV, radio, newspapers, etc., are all packed with information and discussion about Iraq, but the amount of coverage and concern given to cannibals eating French Foreign Legion troops in Congo, or UN soldiers raping little girls there…well, it just doesn’t seem to attract as much attention as the 3000th American soldier to die in Iraq (as if 99% of Americans care to know his name more than his stat).
TWO
President Bush and most Republicans have always been marketed as being tougher on national security (perhaps because when they support a war…they don’t usually oppose it at the same time. Democrats-operating under the umbrella of a powerless party (no power = no responsibility = no accountability) have spent years opposing for opposition’s sake. Without the War in Iraq as a crutch, the Republicans would have had nothing in 2004. Without the war in Iraq as a crutch, the Democrats would have had nothing in 2004 or 2006. No other political issue gets people to the polls: not the Bush Administration’s handling of the conflict in Sri Lanka, and not the Democrats support for unions at a time when unemployment has been at record lows for years. DNC and RNC pollsters, pundits, and politicians NEED the war in Iraq to continue or they will have to find another issue to draw in support, money, and votes. No other issue can do so on the same scale as the debate over Iraq. That’s why the Bush Administration doesn’t share and spend political capital to make it a bi-partisan war (one where insurgents’ strategy of dividing the nation politically to force a politically-demanded withdrawal cannot succeed). It’s also why the Democrats never even started brainstorming on a plan for their promised core campaign theme of 2006, a plan for “A New Direction In Iraq.” It’s not that they don’t care. It’s that they care more about the politics than the success. They need to keep the issue as a marketing draw point, and that’s politicians and reporters refer Specialist Dustin R. Donica not by his name, but by his politically useful number as a casualty.
THREE
Reality…The reality is that the United States cannot ‘just leave’ Iraq and not have any consequences. In fact, the consequences are immense, and unacceptable, but by pandering and misleading politicians, by the complexity of the war, and by the fear of the consequences, we pipedream them away even today-four years into the war.
America has three very different objectives in Iraq. They are sad, embarrassing, and unacceptable, and those who complain that the current path isn’t the best ought to have a better one to propose-one that seeks to accomplish an objective that is acceptable. It was one thing for people to oppose when they felt they were not represented in DC, but now they are, and it’s time to either suggest something better, or support what’s out there now because one cannot be against the war, for victory in the war, and feel as comfortable with defeat as with success.
